On October 28th, 2010, students gathered in Mali Auditorium for a viewing of the History Channel documentary "Save Our History: Save Our Sounds", an exploration of the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institute's race against time to preserve deteriorating historic analog recordings by converting them to digital formats. Their archives make up the most complete collection of audio on the planet, with recordings ranging from radio reports of the Pearl Harbor bombing to croaking frogs to Woody Guthrie's original "This Land is Your Land." The video covered issues with aging wax cylinders, magnetized wire, analog tape, and vinyl and acetate records. The project's strategy is simple: seek out the most valuable, at-risk pieces and digitize them as soon as possible. The difficult part is restoring damaged recordings and converting irreplaceable ones before it's too late.
For more information on the Save our Sounds project or to make a donation, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/sos/ .
