Online training

We have prepared a series of 4 hour-long webinars with the help of the British Library which we will be running periodically on Zoom until May 2022. This training is free and open to anyone working in a gallery, museum, archive or library in the North West region.

You can sign up for all four or just the ones you are interested in. Our aim is to increase confidence in the sector to deal with the sound media in our collections. The next series is scheduled for Tuesdays at 2-3pm on 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of September. You can book via Eventbrite.

1. Planning and collection preparation (7th September 2-3pm)

In this session you will learn how to audit your collection and the basics of evaluating options to work towards an audio preservation strategy for your service. We will discuss the decision to outsource digitisation or do it yourself, and introduce format identification.

2. Digitisation and care of formats (14th September 2-3pm)

In this session you will learn more about assessing, storing and handling different formats:

And about the principles of digitisation focusing on tape reel and cassette formats:

Video demos on CD and minidisc coming soon. Check out our zines on cassette digitisation and CD ripping.

3. Cataloguing (21st September 2-3pm)

In this session we will cover how to catalogue sound recordings from audio and existing documentation and you will get tips about how to incorporate descriptions of sound recordings into your own collections management system. Check out our cataloguing zine.

4. Rights and online use (28th September 2-3pm)

In this session you will be given an overview of how copyright and data protection legislation affects sound recordings and some demonstrations showing you how to provide access to your sound archives onsite and online.

Handouts and support

You will receive British Library handouts and our slides after each session including learning points and links for further reading. We are happy to help with follow-up enquiries after the course as you start to work with your sound archives. If you don’t want to attend the training but need some advice please get in touch.