Preserving the rare and irreplaceable

IU is home to rich collections of audio and video recordings that document subjects of enduring value that showcase the growth of Indiana University, the state of Indiana, and the world. For close to 100 years, IU librarians, archivists, and scholars have carefully selected, acquired, described, and preserved these often-rare recordings. They include treasures such as:

• Early recordings of incomparable Jacobs School of Music performances
• Ethnographic audio and video of cultures around the world
• Wax cylinder sound recordings of Native American music
• Historic speeches of IU visionaries like Herman B Wells and Hoagy Carmichael

Virtually all of the media recordings digitized by MDPI could be considered old, and some have the dubious distinction of also qualifying as rare or fragile. When these states intersect, life becomes particularly harrowing for the digitization engineer, who may face severe challenges in achieving the best playback possible. For some recordings, any playback at all may be a challenge. For others, obsolescence is the challenge—it is getting very difficult to find playback equipment for some formats.