Hi Rob
on your last point, while the British Library Sound Archive uses numerous
mirrored drives for its long term storage rather than optical discs, the
optimum media for us receiving new collections is another matter. We
receive recordings on a variety of media but all recordings are eventually=
transferred to our hard drive arrays (of course analogue recordings must be=
digitised first), as single files which we then replicate; so when receivin=
g
new collections, safe and convenient delivery is more important than
long-term storage. Hard discs drives are good for submission if very
carefully packed, the drive capacities can be huge so very large collection=
s
can be submitted that way, and transfer of the digital bits to our drives i=
n
our internal systems is easy. Optical discs including CD-R and DVD-R are
more robust in the short term for submission, but have less capacity so are=
less convenient for very large collections and transfer to our system can b=
e
more tricky. Either way, we prefer files submitted as uncompressed (PCM)
WAV or broadcast WAV files that should if possible be accompanied by
checksums to ensure every bit is accurately transferred. That's the ideal,=
but as I say, we welcome recordings on a variety of media - from historic
19th C analogue tinfoils to 21st C solid state flash cards. More
information on the "Guide to donating wildlife sound recordings" PDF linked=
from this page:
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/sound/wildsounds/wilddonate/donati=
ng.html
Richard
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