Putting It Into Practice

Evaluating Your Collections

Sound Recordings

Sound recordings may be present in a variety of formats in cultural collections. They may include disc recordings, wax cylinders, reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, and CDs. They may be commercial recordings, or they may document lectures, concerts, or other events of importance to an organization, institution, or individual.

This acetate disc (also known as a transcription or lacquer disc) exhibits loss and a crack in the surface.
Courtesy of Stanford University Libraries

Physical damage to sound recordings includes brittleness, cracking, and decomposition of disc recordings, damage to thin and fragile magnetic tape from playback, distortion of polyester-backed tapes, poor tape pack winding, and damage caused by defective cassette cases.

Chemical damage that may be noted includes sticky shed syndrome, in which a gummy residue is found on the surface of the tape. Sticking or jamming of the tape during playback may also indicate a loss of tape lubricant. In addition, early audiotape may be on acetate, and thus may exhibit evidence of vinegar syndrome, which includes a vinegar odor, curling, or staining. Advanced deterioration will manifest itself through bubbles on the film and separation of the emulsion from the base.