The following report was submitted to the AES Executive Committee
and the Board of Governors:
The Historical Committee has been working on "Guidelines" for the Committee's operation for the last year and a half. The ExComm has asked for a simplified "Operating Structure" which we submitted on 2000 Jan 13, with an amendment Jan 26. We request that the ExComm and Governors approve the amended "Operating Structure". [This was approved. jm]
We invite you to visit the AESHC website where you will find:
1 [Unite persons interested in the history of audio engineering and
its allied fields.]
Our general charge.
2 [Serve as a link between recording studios, radio stations, manufacturers,
and others who wish to discard old equipment; and museums, libraries, archives,
and private collectors who wish to preserve it.]
No current activity.
3 [Serve as a link between recording studios, radio stations, manufacturers,
and others who wish to discard documents relating to the history of audio
engineering; and museums, libraries, archives, and private collectors who
wish to preserve them.]
No current activity.
4 [Collaborate with the AES Standards Committee, SC-03 Subcommittee
on the Preservation and Restoration of Audio Recording, and other AES committees
and subcommittees, as appropriate.]
A number of AESHC members are Standards Committee
members.
5 [Create a "History of the AES" subcommittee, to organize and maintain
an archive relating to the history of the Audio Engineering Society itself,
as outlined in the Appendix. The AESHC shall not create any other archive,
nor any museum or library of its own.]
The AES has an unintentional library of considerable
size, and AESHC members are working on that: see 6 below. That "library"
must be dealt with before the "History of the AES" materials can be organized.
6 [Cooperate with existing libraries, archives, and museums; and with
other professional organizations with related interests (e.g., ARSC, IASA,
IEEE, SMPTE, VDT, inter alia).]
The AES itself has a large library of technical
journals and books that have been donated to the Society, that has "just
growed". This library is housed at the Society headquarters in New York,
and it is overflowing everywhere, forcing the headquarters staff out of
house and home. A group under the leadership of Irv Joel has cataloged
the holdings, and boxed everything so that it can be removed from the HQ
office. We believe that the best disposition for the (non-AES) Journals
and books is to donate them to the Library of Congress. We are working
on the details, and will submit them to the Executive Director for approval.
7 [Contact important figures in the history of audio engineering and
encourage them to donate historical papers to existing museums, archives,
or libraries to ensure their long-term preservation.]
No current activity.
8 [Encourage each Local Section and each Convention Committee to organize
an appropriate session on the history of audio engineering, or a display
on an appropriate historical subject. When requested, provide information
to help them to do so.]
No current activity.
9 [Create and operate two AESHC email reflectors: a Steering Committee
Reflector for discussions of purely administrative matters of the Committee;
and a general Historical Reflector for discussions of actual historical
matters.]
Done, at no expense to the AES; thanks to David
Josephson and Howard Sanner.
10 [Create an AESHC web site and an FTP site on which to publish the
information compiled in the following sections.]
Done, at no expense to the AES; thanks to David
Josephson and Howard Sanner.
11 [Create a directory of museums, libraries, archives, and private
collections that contain historic audio equipment or documents about the
history of audio engineering.]
No current activity.
12 [Devise a catalog for classifying the inventions and developments
made in audio engineering, based on the work of HK Thiele.]
HK Thiele's documents have gone to the TU Berlin,
where Prof. Manfred Krause and his students are organizing them.
13 [Record oral histories (sound only, sound with video, and/or sound
with still photographs) of important figures in the history of audio engineering.]
Irv Joel has done a number of videotaped oral-history
interviews at the 107th Convention in 1999-09, and is continuing that work.
A project to sponsor a book "My Years With Magnetic Recording", by SJ Begun,
(at little or no cost to the AES) is in the planning stage. We are also
obtaining an interview of Marvin Camras done by Mark Clark in 1991, and
placing it on the AESHC ftp site.
14 [Collect, write, publish, and otherwise disseminate accurate historical
information about the field of audio engineering.]
Irv Joel, Jerry Bruck, and Al Grundy have compiled
an "Audio Timeline". J McKnight has prepared an Index of the obituaries
that have been published in the AES Journal; that index was published in
the 1999 December Journal. Howard Sanner has prepared a list of links to
other websites that are concerned with the history of audio engineering
and related subjects. All three of these are now on the AESHC Website.
15 [Translate into English and publish important historical books and
articles with the original and the English-language text on facing pages.
The AESHC shall choose items to be translated.]
No current activity.
Jay McKnight,
Chair, AESHC
posted 2000-07-21
