Cylinder Preservation and Digitalization Project - Overview

Project Overview

The cylinder digitization project began in January 2002 as a pilot project with the goal of exploring the feasibility of digitizing the Library's collection of cylinder recordings for online access. The original pilot project website can be accessed at:

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Pilot Project (January 2002)

The Collections
The UCSB Library has several major collections of cylinders. The Todd Collection consists of approximately 6,000 cylinders, ranging from brown wax to late Blue Amberols. It is especially strong in two- and four-minute Edison wax cylinders. The Blanche Browning-Rich Collection consists of approximately 1,200 Blue Amberol cylinders from unplayed dealer's inventory, acquired by the library in 2002 from the Rich family of Ogden, Utah. The collection of the late author and discographer William R. Moran is especially strong in operatic cylinders, including many Edison rarities. The Library of Congress and Bowling Green State University also contributed cylinders to the project for digitization. Other smaller collections of cylinders have been acquired from various donors.

Funding
After completing the pilot project and demonstrating both the feasibility and public interest in the collections, a grant proposal to the Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) was submitted in 2003. A $205,000 National Leadership Grant in the preservation/digitization category was awarded in September 2003, and the project began in November 2003. The project website went online in October 2005 with an initial collection of 5,000 digitized cylinders. Cylinders continue to be added incrementally as they are digitized. Major funding for the project was provided by IMLS and the UCSB Libraries.

Cataloging
Cylinders were cataloged according to standard library rules for cataloging sound recordings. A large number of cylinder recordings had been cataloged by Syracuse University's Belfer Audio Lab, and their catalog records were used (with modifications) for this project. The remaining cylinders were cataloged by UCSB Library staff. All catalog records are searchable through this website, as well as in Pegasus, the UCSB Library catalog; Melvyl, the University of California systemwide catalog; and FirstSearch/Worldcat the union catalog of OCLC member libraries.

Digitization
Cylinders were transferred using a French-made Archeophone, using custom Shure styli from Expert Stylus in England. The audio was converted from analog to digital using a CEDAR ADA and captured at 44.1KHz with a bit depth of 24 bits in Steinberg Wavelab software running on a PC. Files were edited and normalized and then processed with CEDAR's Series X and Series X+ Declicker, Decrackler, Dehisser, and Debuzzer units. After "cleaning," a third file, dithered down to 16 bits, was created. Surrogate files for online distribution were created with Sound Forge 6.0's batch converter (mp3 files) and Cleaner XL (mov files). (We'd like to use this space as a soapbox to say that Cleaner XL is one of the worst pieces of software we've ever used, with numerous bugs, a bad interface, and constant crashes.)

Storage and Servers
All audio files (approximately 36,000 files, including master and derivative files) of the original cylinders are stored on the Davidson Library's Isilon cluster and use approximately 2.0TB of disc space. The website is hosted on a server running Linux, which communicates with the library's OPAC in realtime through Z39.50 to generate the searchable index. The files are streamed from a G5 Apple Xserve running Quicktime Streaming Server.

Technical Issues
Compared to the relative ease of copying most disc recordings, transferring cylinders presents a unique set of problems. The pilot project demonstrated the feasibility of transferring cylinders using modern electrical equipment on a large scale, but numerous hurdles had to be overcome during the course of the project. A Technical Report is in preparation to explore these details and challenges in greater depth so that others may benefit from our work.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, Technical Report (forthcoming)
Cylinder Quality
The quality of the original cylinders varies widely, depending on the type of cylinder, the condition and even the quality of the original recording. Project staff recognize that not every cylinder digitized is in pristine condition and that better copies may exist at other institutions or in private collections. However, the primary goal of this project is to make UCSB's collection available and a wide range of music from this era accessible to researchers and the public. Many cylinders sound wonderful, while others are almost unlistenable, even having undergone treatment with CEDAR. With few exceptions, project staff did not make decisions to exclude items from the collection based exclusively on condition or sound quality. Project staff felt that bad copies were better than no copies at all since CD reissues are virtually nonexistent, and the public's ability to hear even copies in poor condition is essentially nil. If better copies are acquired by UCSB, inferior copies in question will be replaced and new sound files loaded onto the server.

Disclaimer About "Dialect Recordings"
"Coon songs," "rube sketches," "Irish character songs," and other dialect recordings that were popular in vaudeville routines and genres of songs during the late 19th and early 20th century often contain negative stereotypes and portrayals of blacks and other ethnic groups. These recordings reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. Many individuals will find the content offensive. Some of these songs and recitations were written or performed by members of the ethnic group in question, while others were not, such as the tradition of blackface minstrelsy of whites performing caricatured portrayals of blacks. To exclude these cylinders from the digital collection would deprive scholars and the public the opportunity to learn about the past and would present a distorted picture of popular culture and music making during this time period. The mission of the UCSB Libraries is to make its resources available to the faculty, staff, and students of the University community and to the general public. The UCSB Libraries presents these documents as part of the record of the past and does not endorse the views expressed in these collections.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/overview.php