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Lots of Music for a Mere Pittance: The Sound Documents Landscape in the Czech Republic

Title (author1): 
Dr
First names (author1): 
Iva
Surname (author 1): 
Horova
Institution: 
National Library of Technology
Country: 
CZECH REPUBLIC
Presentation type: 
spoken paper
Date: 
27 Sept Tuesday
Start time: 
1635
Venue: 
LoC Madison Building: Montpelier Rm.
Abstract: 

This paper focuses on an area of audio preservation at the national level that has until recently been completely neglected. Our biggest challenge lies in the fact that we still do not have a Czech National Sound Archive, primarily because we lack systematic preservation policies for audio at a national level. Over the last two years much has been accomplished, but the direction has not been firmly established, and it does not yet have strong institutional support. While our goals have recently been captured in the State Cultural Policy, 2015-2020, the question of funding has not been resolved.
 
In this presentation, we will discuss some of our recent, important activities. Our platform, which aims to fill a gap in understanding the national sound cultural heritage, is called the Virtual National Phonotheque (www.narodnifonoteka.cz). It informs users about the existence, location and content of all audio documents published or housed in the Czech Republic. It is very important that we also cover the history of the Czech sound industry, record labels and publishing. In addition, we are moving forward in many other directions related to the preservation of audio recordings. We want to highlight the gains we have made in our work so far, all without big projects or money from the Czech Republic.