{"id":1831,"date":"2015-11-25T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/listheory.prattsils.org\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2015-11-25T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T18:18:09","slug":"listening-in-at-an-audio-archive-an-observation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/2015\/11\/25\/listening-in-at-an-audio-archive-an-observation\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening in at an Audio Archive, an observation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound<\/a> at the New York Public Library of Performing Arts is the second largest archive of recorded sound in the United States.\u00a0 It is home to a wide range of recordings including but not limited to music in just about every genre, recordings of theater, opera and comedic performances, oral histories, speeches, radio broadcasts and field recordings. The archive holds recordings on every kind of format from wax cylinders to shellac discs, magnetic tape, cassettes and digital audio files.<\/p>\n

The collection can be accessed by visiting the third floor of the Library of Performing Arts<\/a> and making a listening request at the audiovisual desk.\u00a0 Patrons must look up the title, author and class mark, write it down and present a request slip to the library assistant.\u00a0 Everything is classed according to its format for efficient shelving, not according to genre, record label or subject.\u00a0 It is easiest to find a recording if one knows the specific track or artist she is looking for.\u00a0 The online catalog is not designed for browsing like one might do in a record store.\u00a0 Visitors can search via a massive card catalog or the song index that\u00a0is also housed\u00a0in card catalogs.\u00a0 The card catalogs, though rarely in visible use, still provide something a little more like a browsing experience for those wishing to stumble upon something unexpected.\u00a0 In addition to the catalogs, one can also peruse finding aides for different collections within the collection.\u00a0 However the finding aides\u00a0are varied, and some have very little information listed about what a particular title actually contains. Some of the finding aides have handwritten notes or corrections from previous researchers.\u00a0 The sheer volume of material is astounding and somewhat overwhelming.\u00a0 It is truly an amazing and treasure trove of a collection.<\/p>\n

After making the listening request, a listener is given a set of headphones and is assigned a seat at a numbered listening station.\u00a0 The listening stations are equipped with computers that have a special software program installed on them.\u00a0 A patron must wait while the requested audio is collected from the vast archive that is located in the basement of the building.<\/p>\n

A little known fact is that library staff known as the playback team are waiting in the basement to retrieve and play back audio for patrons.\u00a0 They find the requested material and in the case of vinyl or shellac discs or audio reels, they also operate the playback equipment.\u00a0 The playback equipment in the basement is connected to the computers on the third floor so that listeners can hear the requested sounds without actually handling the sometimes fragile audio carriers.\u00a0 The computer software allows listeners to scroll or fast forward through digital audio files during playback, however if a listener has requested a vinyl LP for example, the listener must indicate which track he or she wants to hear via a messaging service on the computer screen.\u00a0 The playback staff is notified of the listener\u2019s message with a little \u201cbeep\u201d and will move the needle to the the desired track on the record.\u00a0 This can sometimes prove a little difficult for staff when patrons ask to hear specific tracks or parts of tracks repeatedly for their research.\u00a0 Many patrons assume the entire system is computerized and do not realize the human labor involved in bringing the sounds to their ears.\u00a0 They do not always understand why it might take a little time to process their request, in these days where messages are sent into space and back in fractions of a second.\u00a0 Some that do understand the situation send humorous messages to the playback team via the messaging system, like \u201cDear Audio God, please play the next track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listeners can stay for as long as they like during opening hours.\u00a0 Some researchers, having made special trips from other parts of the country or abroad will stay the full day or multiple days, only taking short breaks to have lunch in the library cafe.\u00a0 They are trying to get through hours and hours of material during the short time they have in New York.\u00a0 While video or photos allow one to quickly scan and find points of interest, it does not work the same way for audio, particularly during interviews or field recordings.\u00a0 One must sit and listen in real time, unless the audio has been logged or transcribed.\u00a0 Recent developments in automatic transcription and partnerships with organizations such as Pop Up Archive<\/a> may prove very useful for researchers in the future.<\/p>\n

While the collection holds such a wide array of fascinating recordings and most likely has something of interest to just about anyone, it does not seem that there are many casual listeners or members of the general public who stop in to sample what the archive has to offer.\u00a0 Lack of\u00a0 awareness of the collection and accessibility are two issues that perhaps lead to less enjoyment and use of the RHA holdings.<\/p>\n

In his article, \u201cThe User Experience<\/a>,\u201d Aaron Schmidt defines user experience as \u201carranging the elements of a product or service to optimize how people will interact with it.\u201d\u00a0 Librarians, curators and archivists working with audio collections must think about how people want to interact with the sounds in their collections.\u00a0 Copyright issues, conservation, audio formats and accessibility are all issues to consider when planning out how audio collections will be encountered and experienced by library users.\u00a0 In what ways do people want to listen?<\/p>\n

From the user experience perspective, one issue members of the public must face is gaining access to the spaces where they can hear the recordings.\u00a0 To access the listening stations, patrons must first place their belongings with security.\u00a0 Then, as outlined before they must make a request to hear the material, some of which may or may not be immediately available since some recordings must be digitized before playback is allowed. This situation may not be a problem for researchers familiar with library procedures who need access to the recordings in order to carry out their work.\u00a0 However, what about the patron who may not even know the collection exists, considering that it is located in a locked basement doors and difficult to browse online?\u00a0 Audio collections tell fascinating stories through words, sound and music.\u00a0 However, without more focus on user experience, they may go unheard.\u00a0 Listening spaces in libraries are in need of an update.\u00a0 As audio technology becomes less expensive and more widely available, why aren\u2019t library users offered more options for listening? \u00a0Innovations in audio technology<\/a> can raise awareness of collections, improve accessibility and offer library patrons new ways of listening. \u00a0How do you want to listen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library of Performing Arts is the second largest archive of recorded sound in the United States.\u00a0 It is home to a wide range of recordings including but not limited to music in just about every genre, recordings of theater, opera and comedic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29,30,143,206,224],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-field-reports","tag-audio-archive","tag-audio-technology","tag-listening","tag-sound-archive","tag-user-experience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}