You could listen to multiple people recite the first 50 digits of pi in various styles, including to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (my personal favorite), in the voice of Bullwinkle, as an infomercial, in Latin, while laughing, in Morse Code, and while eating actual pie.
We have been digitizing about 8,000 78rpm record sides each month and now have 122,000 of them done. These have been posted on the net and over a million people have explored them. We have been digitizing, typing the information on the label, and linking to other information like discographies, databases, reviews and the like.
Volunteers, users, and internal QA checkers have pointing out typos, and we decided to go back over a couple of month’s metadata and found problems. And then we contracted with professional proofreaders and they found even more (2% of the records at this point had something to point out, some are matters of opinion or aesthetics, some lead to corrections).
We are going to pay the professional proofreaders to correct the 5 most important fields for all 122,000 records, but can use more help. We are pointing these out here in hopes to interest volunteer proofreaders and to share our experience in continually improving our collections.
Here are some of the issues with the primary performer field: before-the-after that we have now corrected from the June 2019 transfers (before | after) that we hope to upload in the next couple of weeks:
Jose Melis And His Latin American Ensemble | Jose Melis And His-Latin American Ensemble Columbia-Orchestra | Columbia-Orchester S. Formichi and T. Chelotti | S. Formichi e T. Chelotti Dennis Daye and The Rhythmaires | Dennis Day and The Rhythmaires Harry James and His Orchestra | Harry James and His Orch. Charles Hart & Elliot Shaw | Charles Hart & Elliott Shaw Peerless Quartet | Peerless Quartette
Some of the title corrections:
O Vino Fa ‘Papla (Wine Makes You Talk) | ‘O Vino Fa ‘Papla (Wine Makes You Talk) Masked Ball Salaction | Masked Ball Selection Moonlight and Roses (Brings Mem’ries Of You) | Moonlight and Roses (Bring Mem’ries Of You) Que Bonita Eres Tu (You Are Beutiful) | Que Bonita Eres Tu (You Are Beautiful) Buttered Roll | “Buttered Roll” Paradise | “Paradise” Got a Right to Cry | “Got a Right to Cry” Blue Moods | “Blue Moods” Auf Wiederseh’n Sweerheart | Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart George M. Cohan Medley – Part 1 | George M. Cohan Medley – Part 2 Dewildered | Bewildered Lolita (Seranata) | Lolita (Serenata) Got a Right to Cry | “Got a Right to Cry” Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers Blue Moods | “Blue Moods” Body and Soul | “Body and Soul” Mais Qui Est-Ce | Mais Qui Est-Ce? Wail Till the Sun Shines Nellie Blues | Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie Blues Que Te Pasa Joe (What Happens Joe) | Que Te Pasa Jose (What Happens Joe) SAMSON AND DELILAH Softly Awakens My Heart | SAMSON AND DELILAH Softly Awakes My Heart I’m Gonna COO, COO, COO | (I’m Gonna) COO, COO, COO
Good news: we have funding to preserve at least another 250,000 sides of 78rpm records, and we are looking for donations to digitize and physically preserve. We try to do a good job of digitizing and hosting the recordings and then thousands of people listen, learn, and enjoy these fabulous recordings.
If you have 78s (or other recordings) that you would like to find a good home for, please think of us — we are a non-profit and your donations will be tax-deductible, digitized for all to hear, and physically preserved. If you are interested in donating recordings of any type or appropriate books, please start with this form and we will contact you immediately
We are looking for anything we do not already have. (We are finding 80% duplication rates sometimes, so we are trying to find larger or more niche collections). We will physically preserve all genres, but our current funding has directed us to prioritize digitization of non-classical and non-opera.
We can pay for packing and shipping, and are getting better at the logistics for collections of a few thousand and up. These are fragile objects and we are having good luck avoiding damage.
The reason to highlight the donors is twofold: one is the celebrate the donor and their story, but the other is to help contextualize these recordings for different generations. These stories help users find meaning in the materials and find things they want to listen to. This way we can lead new listeners to love this music as the original collectors have
Working together we can broaden this collection to works from around the world and different cultural groups in each country.
If you are a private individual or an institution and have records to contribute, even if they are not 78s, please start with this simple form, or email info@archive.org, or call +1-415-561-6767 and we will contact you immediately. Thank you.
Following eighteen months of work, more than 50,000 78rpm record “sides” from the Boston Public Library’s sound archives have now been digitized and made freely available online by the Internet Archive.
”This project and the very generous support and diversity of expertise that converged to make it possible, all ensure the Library’s sound collections are not only preserved but made accessible to a much broader audience than would otherwise ever have been possible, all in the spirit of Free to All.” said David Leonard, President of the Boston Public LIbrary.
In 2017, the Boston Public Library transferred their sound archives to the Internet Archive so that the materials could be reformatted digitally and preserved physically. Working in collaboration with George Blood LP, using their specialty turntable and expert staff, these recordings have been digitized at high standards so that others can use these materials for research. This is now the largest collection within the Great 78 Project, which aims to bring hundreds of thousands of 78rpm recordings to the Internet.
The records within BPL’s collection represent early twentieth century music and sound recordings from both popular and obscure artists. 78s were made from shellac, a resin secreted from female beetles, and are incredibly brittle and delicate; records can break from simple handling. Digitizing these records is therefore the best way to preserve not only the music on the recordings but also the original artifact itself, ensuring the continued availability of the resource into the future.
After the recordings were digitized, volunteers with the Internet Archive and the Archive of Contemporary Music linked the sides to published discographies using a mix of manual techniques and custom algorithms to find dates and context. As a result of these activities, more than 80% of the sides now have dates or links to contemporaneous reviews. Additionally, more than 250 have been matched to sheet music and displayed alongside the music, based on the digitized collections from Connecticut College.
The inclusion of discographies was an important component of this project, providing users the necessary historical context for the recordings. CashBox Magazine was digitized and contributed by the Earl Gregg Swem Library, located at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. David Seubert of the University of California Santa Barbara contributed database exports to aid matching against UCSB’s Discography of American Historical Recordings. University of Toronto made print discographies available for research in this project.
As a result of project activities, more than 750 different labels are represented in the collection, spanning from 1901 to 1966. Highlights of the collection include early American jazz and blues recordings, such as 11 sides from the renowned Paramount Records, originally founded by the Wisconsin Chair Company.
At an event at the Boston Public Library last month, Brewster Kahle, the Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive, presented the digital files from the 50,000 sides to David Leonard, the President of the Boston Public Library. With the return of the digital files, BPL was able to unlock access to the materials in a form that won’t damage the originals, ensuring the long-term viability of the 78s and the music recorded on them. The project was featured on-air during the Boston Public Radio program the next day, including samples from the recordings.
How can you get involved?
The Internet Archive invites other individuals and institutions to participate in this program by:
Donating 78rpm records to the Internet Archive, where the they will be preserved and digitized as funding allows (and funding for mass digitization is now available);
Digitizing your 78’s with the same careful but cost-effective technologies from George Blood LP and then contribute the digital files, but retain the physical discs.
We would like to emphasize that “reformatting” library collections by donating the physical objects to the Internet Archive can be a model for cost effective modern access and physical preservation. To learn more about library reformatting, please contact Chris Freeland, Director of Open Libraries.
This project was funded by the Kahle/Austin Foundation.
Commercial radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, bringing entertainment, news and music into people’s homes. Now, instead of needing to play a 78rpm disc on your phonograph, you could just tune in to listen to popular songs.
But why are we focusing on 1923? Because for the first time in 20 years, new works are entering the public domain in the United States (read more: 1,2, 3). And those works were all published in, you guessed it, 1923.
In honor of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (October 27) we’d like to take you on a brief tour through seven decades of digitized music and audio recordings from 1900 through 1970. We’ve been working to digitize 78rpm discs for the Great 78 Project to preserve the heritage of the first half of the 20th century, and now we’re turning our eyes toward vinyl LPs that have fallen out of print in the Unlocked Recordings collection.
1905 – A Picnic For Two
1906 – Talmage on Infidelity (very judgy)
1912 – Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold
1916 – I’ll Take you Home Again, Kathleen
1920 – I Want a Jazzy Kiss (as opposed to a bluesy kiss)
1937 – A Cowboy Honeymoon (hint: includes yodeling)
1939 – The Red Army Chorus of the U.S.S.R. (when we were pals)
1945– Don’t you Worry ‘Bout That Mule” (spoiler alert – he ain’t goin’ blind)
1947 – Everything is Cool (so sayeth Bab’s 3 Bips & a Bop)
1950 – When both accordions and Hi-Fi were hip
1950 – “They’re all dressed up to go swinging and, Man, they’re a gas!” (Sonny Burke from the back cover)
1957 – Amongst fierce competition, this gem wins Most Nightmare Inducing Cover Image
1958 – Dance music from Israel
1959 – This intensely sleepy version of “Makin’ Whoopee” will send you to sleep in the lounge.
1960 – My next story is a little risque (and so is the one after that)
1961 – Recorded live at the Second City Cabaret Theatre, Chicago, Ill.
1961 – Easy winner for the worst song opening we’ve ever heard, enjoy Tiger Rag from The Percussive Twenties.
1962 – Significant improvement on the Tiger Rag from the Doowackadoodlers
1963 – “Adults only” saucy comedy
1966 – Organ-ized wins best pun, as well as having “Popular songs arranged for organ” by “Brazil’s #1 Organist”
1966 – The music stylings of Mrs. Miller are not to be missed – personal favorites are “Hard day’s night” and “These boots are made for walkin'”
1966 – The “You Don’t Have to be Jewish” Players are falling in love
WE HAVE ONE SIMPLE REQUEST…. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LLAMA.
Clicking on the Llama will release Webamp, a javascript-based player that mimics, down to individual strangeness and bugs, the operations of the once dominant Winamp, a media player considered to be one of the classic software creations of the 1990s.
To help you avoid this llama, we’ll tell you it’s in the upper right corner of any Internet Archive item that has a music player in it. This means the Grateful Dead recordings, radio airchecks, network record labels like monotonik, and all manner of podcasts now have the capability to be turned into a Winamp-like player that becomes your new default.
(If, by mistake, you click on the Llama, clicking on it again will turn off the Webamp player and restore the default player.)
This all got started because of the skins.
As part of our celebration of all things Internet, the Archive now has a large collection of Winamp Skins, which were artistic re-imaginings of the Winamp interface, that allowed all sorts of neat creative works on what could have been a basic media player. These “skins” were contributed to over the years (and new ones are still created!) and now number in the thousands. In the collection you’ll see examples of superheroes, video games, surreal images and a pretty wide array of pop stars and celebrities.
We have added over 5,000 skins (with many more coming), and then someone had the bright idea to make the Webamp player work within the Internet Archive to show off these skins, and here we are.
Thanks to Jordan Eldredge and the Webamp programming community for this new and strange periscope into the 1990s internet past.
To preserve or discover interesting 78rpm records you can download them to your own machine (rather than using our collection pages). You can download lots on to a mac/linux machine by using a command line utility.
Option 2: if you want to preserve the FLAC and MP3 and metadata files for the best version of the 78rpm record we have. (if you are using a Mac Install homebrew on a mac, then type “brew install parallel”. On linux try “apt-get install parallel”)
By working together, libraries who are digitizing their collections can minimize duplication of effort in order to save time and money to preserve other things. This month we made progress with 78rpm record collections.
The goal is to bring many collections online as cost effectively as possible. Ideally, we want to show each online collection as complete but only digitize any particular item once. Therefore one digitized item may belong virtually to several collections. We are now doing this with 78rpm records in the Great 78 Project.
It starts with great collections of 78s (18 contributors so far). For each record, we look up the record label, catalog number, and title/performer, to see if we have it already digitized. If we have it already, then we check the condition of the digitized one against the new one– if we would improve the collection, we digitize the new one. If we do not need to digitize it, we add a note to the existing item that it now also belongs to another collection, as well as note where the duplicate physical item can be found.
For instance, the KUSF collection we are digitizing has many fabulous records we have never seen before including sound effect records. But about half are records we have digitized better copies of before, so we are not digitizing most of those. We still attribute the existing digital files to the KUSF collection so it will have a digital file in the online collection for each of their physical discs.
It takes about half the time to find a record is a duplicate than to fully digitize it, and given that we are now seeing about half of our records not needing to be digitized, we are looking for ways to speed this up.
OCLC has many techniques to help with deduplication of books and we are starting to work with them on this, but for 78s we are making progress in this way. Please enjoy the 78s.
Thank you to GeorgeBlood L.P., Jake Johnson, B. George, and others.
