Digital Collections: Georgia State University Library Completes Grant Making Recordings, Speeches, and More From The Southern Labor Archives Audio Collection Digitally Accessible
From the Georgia State University Library:
Georgia State University Library has completed a $23,945 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to support digitizing audio holdings in the 20th and 21st century Southern Labor Archives. As a result of the project, 523 recordings that were once inaccessible due to their format and at risk of irreparable degradation are now available to the public in Georgia State’s Digital Collections.
The newly digitized recordings hold a wealth of information from various industries and organizations, including meeting recordings from southern nurses’ associations from 1950s-1970s, various state AFL-CIO meeting recordings, and speeches made by presidents and presidential candidates at labor meetings or conventions. The collection also includes radio ads and clips, information about old hotels and buildings which have since been torn down, and political speeches lost to time because the candidates were not elected.
“We are excited about the impact of this grant and collection,” said Christina Zamon, Head of Special Collections & Archives. “By digitizing and sharing these historical recordings, we’re not just preserving the past, but providing access to a unique set of resources that can inspire and inform future generations.”
The recordings are also being made available to the Digital Library of Georgia, which will be disseminated through the Digital Public Library of America.
The award was part of CLIR’s “Recordings at Risk” program, which is made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation. Georgia State’s project, “Digitizing Southern Labor’s 20th and 21st Century Spoken Word,” was one of 20 selected for funding by CLIR out of 91 applicants nationally.
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
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