Sounds From the Past

The last “Let’s Talk Library” Blog featured information regarding the Library of Congress’s efforts to archive and preserve one of the most contemporary forms of communication—Tweeting.  Today’s post showcases another program at the Library of Congress to preserve an important form of communication—this one from the past.  It is known as the National Jukebox and it attempts to “make historical recordings available to the public free of charge.  The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation (pictured above) and other contributing libraries and archives.”

Here users may listen to the famous contralto Marian Anderson sing “My Lord, What a Mornin’” (1924) or a 1911 recording of Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” performed by Collins and Harlan.  The collection also includes a number of spoken word recordings, including speeches by famous political figures and comedies, monologues, dialogues, and recitations.

Significant historical details of each recording (author, performers, date and place of recording, and label name and number, etc.) have been meticulously preserved.  One of the most interesting features of the site is the ability to view reproductions of the actual label on each recording.  Other features include listings of all of the artists and the recordings by genre as well as featured playlists.  One of my favorites is the selection of titles in the “Civil War Music” playlist.

For assistance with these or other library resources or services, stop by or contact the Rice Library Reference Desk (812/464-1907; 800/246-6173, libref@usi.edu).

P.O.

Tweet This: Library of Congress to Archive Tweets

Last April the Library of Congress announced plans to digitally archive all public tweets from the Twitter information network. Soon all your carefully crafted 140 character messages will have a permanent home in the world's largest and most prestigious library. Sure this announcement bought the Library of Congress (LOC) some street cred with young people and technophiles but why would the LOC do this?

Time Magazine blogger Graeme McMillan stated the potential importance of creating a  "kind of record [that] demonstrates a much more honest idea of what history was actually like for generations to come, much in the same way that pop culture ephemera like magazines, comic books and pop songs have done so in the past." Researchers could certainly benefit from the data-mining opportunities available within the archive. Soon analyzing Twitter feeds may be the go-to way to gauge real-time responses to current events and breaking news from 2006 to the present.


But there are still some answered questions. As it stands, tweets are automatically archived on all public accounts. What if you don't want your thoughts on the latest episode of Jersey Shore going down in history? Can you opt out of being part of the Twitter archive? Only time will tell how the LOC and Twitter handle privacy concerns. We'll continue to follow this story and keep you posted!

Nicole Tekulve
Instructional Services Librarian