Bentley Library Audio Preservation Project
The Bentley Historical Library has within its holdings thousands of recordings in multiple formats ranging from tape reels, discs, wire recordings, to cylinders and cassette tapes. The recordings found here are a rich resource for the study Michigan's and the university's history and include interviews, oral histories, musical performances, and radio broadcasts among other genres.
In 2012, the Library started working towards digitally preserving a selection of reel-to-reel and cassette tapes from these materials. Recordings from over 100 collections from the University Archives and the Michigan Historical Collections were chosen to be part of this initial project to make the contents digitally available for researchers. This audio preservation project should take approximately three years to complete and is part of a more encompassing digital preservation effort at the Bentley.
Digitizing is being done by The Media Preserve in Pennsylvania. Digital audio files for each tape will include a Broadcast wav preservation file, a Broadcast wav production file, and an access mp3 file for streaming. Collections being digitized as part of this project include the Men's Glee Club, Mike Wallace, John and Leni Sinclair, WUOM, and the Canterbury House records, among others. For questions or comments about the project contact Melissa Hernandez Duran, Project Lead, at mhdezd@umich.edu.