Preserving Sound History: Library of Congress Archivist Interview

The Library of Congress and National Archives serve complementary roles in preserving America's historical records: the Library collects materials not created by the government (including presidential papers from Washington to Coolidge), while the Archives preserves government-created records; both institutions are now adapting to the digital age by transitioning to digital-only records after 2022 and engaging citizens through initiatives like the Citizen Archivist Dashboard to transcribe historical documents, ensuring perpetual access to America's democratic heritage.

The Library of Congress and the National Archives serve distinct but complementary roles in preserving American history: the Library of Congress preserves materials created by private citizens (such as the first printing of the Declaration of Independence with John Hancock's signature, Abraham Lincoln's assassination contents, and Thomas Jefferson's hair), while the National Archives, established by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, is responsible for collecting, protecting, and making available records created by the United States government.

Libraries serve as repositories and depositories of national culture. They contain and preserve cultural heritage and knowledge for future generations. This role remains fundamental regardless of technological changes. Libraries must adapt to new realities while maintaining their core function as cultural institutions that preserve and disseminate knowledge.

The National Library serves as an ideal place for students and researchers, while the archives preserve collective history. The library handles legal deposits, international standard numbers (ISBD), and publishing house regulation. The archives collect, classify, conserve, and communicate national archival heritage, contributing to the valorization of public archives and central administrations. These institutions represent a choice of peace, civilization, and promotion of culture and knowledge. They translate and manifest the nation's will to leave a trace in history and collective memory, serving as privileged instruments of information, education, and formation for the population. The President emphasized that building these institutions represents a choice of peace, civilization, and promotion of culture and knowledge.

Libraries serve as essential institutions for preserving and transmitting national memory. The Library of Congress, established in 1802, collects treasures of American history including presidential papers, Supreme Court documents, veteran oral histories, films, photographs, newspapers, and musical instruments. These materials form the raw material for documentary filmmakers. The institution's mission extends beyond preservation to actively supporting creators who transform archival materials into compelling narratives that help citizens understand their shared past. The Library contains 173 million items, with 61 million digitized, representing a comprehensive repository for understanding American history.

Field recordings and oral histories preserve cultural knowledge that might otherwise be lost. The artist worked with Ann Marwick, who created a significant archive of recordings, stories, and interviews. The artist used her field recordings in songs, creating a full-circle connection when she later met the artist at a performance. The song 'Catty Face' opens with a gentleman's dialect speech about taming a short-haired owl, with the song's pace matching his dialect and story. This approach demonstrates how field recordings can be integrated into musical works, preserving both the content and the distinctive speech patterns of the original speakers.

This section establishes the foundational challenges in studying music history. Traditional music history focuses on 'music of the author' - famous composers like Mozart and Beethoven - but excludes primitive peoples' music, Mediterranean civilizations, and Western folk music. Studying primitive music was historically difficult due to the absence of written documentation; unlike art music with manuscripts, primitive music was transmitted orally. This changed in 1878 when Edison invented the phonograph, enabling sound archives and field recordings. This technological breakthrough gave rise to ethnomusicology, a discipline studying oral musical traditions of all peoples. Alexander John Ellis contributed by developing a centesimal system for measuring musical intervals, enabling systematic comparison of scales across cultures. Kurt Sachs proposed that dance is the mother of all arts, existing in both time and space. Bartók and Kodály demonstrated how ethnomusicological research directly influenced composition by integrating folk music elements into their works.

Ethnomusicologists examine music within culture, as culture, and as reflection of culture. Core methodological approaches include ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, learning languages and musical traditions, and collecting recordings with contextual information. Unlike traditional musicology relying on printed manuscripts, ethnomusicology centers fieldwork where the field worker is the primary data source. Alan Lomax classified participants into four groups: performers of ethnic music, teachers, musicological contingent focusing on sound objects, and anthropological contingent viewing music as culture. The field evolved from armchair analysis to sustained fieldwork, with Timothy Rice advocating for human-focused studies examining how people historically construct, maintain, and create musical experiences.

Oral history and ethnomusicological collections represent important but underutilized sources for documenting disasters. The Terry Beck collection at Indiana University contains over 2,000 hours of recordings of songs from different parts of Nepal recorded in the 1960s and 1970s, representing a genre closer to what existed a hundred years ago before modern media influenced folk music. These recordings may contain references to the 1934 earthquake. Similarly, oral histories from people who witnessed the earthquake (now in their late 80s or 90s) could provide valuable firsthand accounts, though researchers are running against time to collect this information before it is lost. Unpublished fieldwork materials from anthropologists and ethnographers who conducted research in Nepal in the decades following the 1934 earthquake also represent an important but underexplored resource containing observations about material destruction and oral testimonies from local populations.

Alan Lomax conducted field recordings that documented American folk and blues music from the 1940s-1950s, preserving a crucial chunk of American history that would otherwise have been lost. These recordings captured musicians like Leadbelly, who was found in a prison farm and entertained wardens by performing. The recordings documented musicians who had regular jobs and played music on farms, porches, and street corners. Without these field recordings, a significant portion of American musical heritage would have been lost to history. The preservation of these recordings demonstrates the importance of documenting musical traditions before they disappear, and how field recordings serve as historical artifacts that document cultural heritage. The speaker also discusses how blues musicians like Little Walter and Muddy Waters were sometimes impersonated by others who would pretend to be them to earn money, illustrating how musical identity and authenticity were important concerns in the blues tradition.

Environmental control risk assessment considers risks from temperature, humidity, light, and other environmental factors. Archives require appropriate environmental conditions to prevent deterioration. Light and UV exposure risk assessment considers the adequacy of lighting controls and potential for light damage. New media archives such as audio-visual materials require specialized preservation approaches including stringing, blocking, vinegar syndrome, and mold growth. Vinegar syndrome occurs in acetate-based media and produces a strong vinegar odor, requiring specialized storage conditions including freezer temperatures for severely deteriorated materials.

Vinegar syndrome refers to the degradation of film based acetate materials, causing negatives to curl up and become brittle. Affected negatives tend to be very fragile and may break when run through a scanner. When vinegar syndrome affects a folder of negatives, they must be isolated immediately because the syndrome can spread to other negatives in contact, potentially destroying entire collections. This represents a serious threat to film-based archival materials.

Microorganisms causing archival deterioration are bacteria and fungi that secrete enzymes decomposing organic materials into nutrients. They target cellulose, paper sizing, starches, gums, gelatin, and leather. Enzymes cause cellulose hydrolysis, often with oxidative decomposition from hydrogen peroxide. Acidic metabolic products cause additional acid hydrolysis, resulting in irreversible material weakening and staining. The primary growth factor is humidity in objects and surrounding air. Fungal growth requires 22-30°C and humidity above 40%, identified by expanding stains, mold, and spore production. Bacterial growth requires 20-37°C and humidity above 70%, identified by compact stains turning brown. Control measures include intensive ventilation, temperature increases in dark areas, and specialized personnel consultation for widespread infections.

High temperatures directly impact organic archival materials by drying them out. All organic materials will decay, and the challenge is to find ways to slow down this process of decay to enable access to archives and the information they contain into the future. High temperatures cause materials to become desiccated and create dust.

Vinegar syndrome is a modern enemy of film preservation that destroys film in a different way than nitrate deterioration. While nitrate disintegrates, vinegar syndrome melts the picture on the film. This syndrome affects acetate-based films and represents an additional challenge for film archivists working to preserve the surviving film stock from earlier eras.