Preserving Smith County’s Voices on Tape
The Smith County Historical Society is proud to launch an important preservation effort focused on safeguarding a fading piece of our local history: magnetic audio tapes.
In 1968, the SCHS began documenting educational programs presented by local authors, scholars, librarians, historians, and professionals. The subjects covered include the life, culture, and history of East Texas during the 1800s and 1900s, featuring significant topics such as the Civil War Prisoner of War Camp Ford and WWII Camp Fannin. The recordings also include personal interviews with longtime residents, many of whom have since passed away. These recordings provide rare personal insights, with approximately 98% of the content never having been published. The recordings are currently stored on reel-to-reel, cassette, and VHS formats, all of which are now considered ‘high risk’ for deterioration and potential content loss.
“Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that our review panel has recommended Smith County Historical Society, Inc. for a Recordings at Risk grant in the amount of $25,258.43 to support the project Historical Magnetic Tape Preservation Project. Your project was one of only 20 selected from a total of 77 applications.”
Total: 158
Reel-to-reel recordings, developed in the 1940s, were not encased. A reel with magnetic tape was placed on a spindle, and the tape’s end was manually fed into an adjacent empty reel. The empty reel would then turn, winding the tape onto itself.
Total: 126
An audio cassette tape is a magnetic tape that runs between two small reels in a compact case. Introduced in the early 1960s, it became the most popular audio recording medium until the CD was released in the 1980s.
Total: 52
The Video Home System, introduced in the mid-1970s, became the primary video recording format for family memories until the DVD was released in the 1990s.
U-Matic & Betamax
U-matic, released in the early 1970s, was one of the first video formats with encased reels. In the 1980s, Betamax faced off against VHS, but VHS emerged victorious. If there are remaining funds from the grant and with CLIR’s approval, we will digitize these items as well. We’ll keep you updated!
“This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.”
“The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. To learn more, visit www.clir.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.”
University of Texas of Tyler
We are grateful to be working with Terra Gullings, MLIS, CA, Head of University Archives and Special Collections at The University of Texas at Tyler. The University will provide storage of our original media in their temperature-controlled closed stacks. This will allow for the continued preservation of the items in their current form. They will also participate in marketing and outreach efforts once we have made these digitized recordings available online.
Scene Savers
We are working with Scene Savers for the digitization of our precious magnetic media. These are trained specialists in the field of remastering and restoration of audio/visual materials. Scene Savers will inventory, inspect, clean (if necessary), and digitize our media. They will also provide metadata entry, an access copy for each, quality control, and so much more.
ETV Software
ETV Software is local to Tyler and they have been helping us with our information technology needs for years. They will be helping us on this project by copying the digitized data onto our server, validating the data before and after the copy is made, verifying the metadata, and providing a remote backup service.