PRESERVING CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BROADCAST TAPES

In the last decade archivists, especially those with music and oral history collections, have become increasingly concerned about the lifespan of audio tape, yet few archives have instituted comprehensive preservation policies for sound recordings. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Archives, determined to preserve the sound of the orchestra, embarked on a major audio tape restoration project in 1988. The author describes the difficulties experienced in collecting, appraising, and restoring the audio tape collection and summarizes the most current literature on audio tape preservation. In conclusion, she urges all repositories with recorded sound collections to view recordings as important musical and historical documents and treat them accordingly.