2020 IASA - FIAT/IFTA Joint Conference

This presentation will examine the challenges of undertaking a large-scale, multi-stakeholder project at National Museums NI to digitise and disseminate audio-recordings drawn from over half a century. It will outline the technical processes and problems involved in digitising obsolete formats with finite shelf-life. It will then explore the various considerations of cataloguing recordings of multifarious subjects and lengthy discourses, which were collected by museum curators and historians for posterity but not necessarily intended for publication. Dealing with the copyright of material on such a vast and unprecedented project presents additional layers of legal and moral issues, as will be explained and illustrated. Further, the presentation will explain how the introduction of a large team of volunteers to expedite work has brought new dimensions to the project. Finally, it will expand on the challenges of creating outreach material based on this sound heritage for schools, community groups and artists, with a view not only to saving endangered sounds, but also creating a legacy of educating the public about the value of sound heritage, and re-establishing the Ulster Folk Museum as a centre of excellence for oral history and sound-archiving, beyond the end of the project in autumn 2021 and into the future.