SOUND FOOTINGS

Aim

To create a web-based research infrastructure in support of two major music archives: The Eileen Joyce Collection (The University of Western Australia) and The Asian-Australian Music Collection (Monash University).

Background

Through the Australian Research Council funded project Sound Footings, The University of Western Australia (UWA) facilitates access to and stimulates research on the Eileen Joyce Collection. The collection was presented to the University by Dr Joyce as a personal archive of her career as an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. As custodian of the Eileen Joyce Collection, the Callaway Centre Archive was responsible for the delivery of the UWA component of the project.

Goals

The primary objectives of the project were to preserve and catalogue the full collection and to digitise as much content as possible, particularly the sound recordings. As part of a web-based research infrastructure, these resources would then be available Australia-wide and internationally through the Callaway Centre Archive’s online catalogue and the National Library of Australia's database Libraries Australia and its Music Australia service.

Activities

1. Infrastructure & Standards

The project was able to utilise, and further refine, much of the infrastructure developed during the PASH project, including the Local Reference Database, technical specifications for cataloguing and digitisation, rights management, and digital storage.

Central to Sound Footings was the development of an archival approach to collection organisation and description. Whereas PASH had focused on an item-by-item, library-based cataloguing approach, Sound Footings described sets of items at various levels: collection, series, file and item. This approach critically reshaped the cataloguing and collection management standards previously conceived of in PASH.

2. Collection Management

The collection has been arranged into series and file units and moved into polypropylene archival containers. Acid-free paper wallets and Mylar transparent encapsulations have been used to store items.

The collection has been boxed, labelled and filed in sequence. This is the first collection in the Archive to be arranged under the professional principles of archiving.

3. Cataloguing and Digitisation

A technical specification was prepared to allow the archival-level description of collections to be registered as catalogue entries on the national database.

The Eileen Joyce Collection has been arranged in ten series, and a catalogue entry prepared for each series. Within these, there are file and item level entries for 75 print and 50 sound carrier items. While the catalogue represents the most powerful finding aid to the collection, separate finding aid documents were also created.

All 233 Eileen Joyce sound recordings held by the Archive were digitised in-house for preservation purposes; 100 from the Eileen Joyce Collection and 133 from the Handa Collection. Master (preservation) and access copies were made for each recording, and mp3 files were generated for connection with the catalogue entries. All files have been stored on a web-server and two additional copies have been stored on CD in the Callaway Centre Archive.

A selection of print material (210 pages/90 unique items) has been transferred to digital format as TIFF master, co-master and examination files at 600dpi, pdf printable files, and view and thumbnail JPEG derivatives at 72dpi, according to National Library of Australia standards.

4. Web Delivery

The Callaway Centre Archive database went live in December 2007. All Callaway Centre Archive catalogue records have now been uploaded to the National Libraries database, Libraries Australia, for inclusion in its Music Australia service.

Digital objects of some sound recordings can be accessed through a link embedded in the catalogue record or via a “Special List” facility that allows researchers to see only those catalogue entries that link to a digital object.

A short timeline of the life of Eileen Joyce is presented graphically with links to appropriate digital items such as early letters and photographs. Links have been made to alternative Eileen Joyce resources outside the Callaway Centre Archive.

Project Outcomes

The following links provide examples of some of the work that has been done:

The Callaway Centre Archive Catalogue Search Page

Eileen Joyce Collection sound recording catalogue entry

Eileen Joyce Timelines:

Brief Timeline - biographical highlights, including images

Full Timeline - detailed chronology

Eileen Joyce Collection Special List of digital sound objects

Music Australia entry

Acknowledgements

This infrastructure was established through funding provided by an Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure Project (project number LEO 668458 - Sound Footings: creating a web-based research infrastructure of major music archives) and The University of Western Australia's Research Matching Fund. Further support and expertise were provided by the National Library of Australia and the library at The University of Western Australia. The Chief Investigators acknowledge and thank the ARC, The University of Western Australia and the National Library of Australia for their support.