2020 IASA - FIAT/IFTA Joint Conference

The Library of Congress has been recording, curating and archiving literary audio since the early 1940s— collections that include voices of some of the most prominent poets and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

From a case study perspective, this presentation will offer a brief overview of the 80-year history of the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature (ARPL) and the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT), exploring how the archives were made and continue to be made accessible to increasingly diverse audiences; the transition from analog to digital formats; and how these collections demonstrate that the Library of Congress is not just a collections repository, but also a content creator and cultural beacon.

Specifically, this presentation will delve into the crucial collaboration between archive curators and digital content experts. The release of digitized audio recordings for ARPL and AHLOT represent two of the Library’s first formalized projects that helped establish formative institutional workflows to document digital processing, metadata best practices, and publishing procedures. These laid the foundation for similar digital preservation practices that the institution continues to build upon for other projects, and demonstrate the vital role that digitally accessible collections play in creating and sustaining cultural value and access.