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reel to reel tape (was: Re: questions for a grant application)



Regarding the availability of reel to reel tape:

> I believe you are correct in assuming ". . . that the only currently
> recognized archival medium is open-reel, half-inch, analog tape."  I
> don't see this changing anytime soon.  One reason for sticking to this
> standard is that there are still plenty of players and recorders around to
> use this format.  These machines, to the best of my knowledge, are still
> being made.  Otari, one of my personal favorites for no other reason than
> good experience with them, still makes these machines.  I also know that
> there are plenty of people who can fix them and pleanty of used ones
> around.  Another reason, I believe that this tape is still standard is
> that it is still being produced and is readily available. As long as you
> don't have binder breakdown, run into sticky shed problems, or have tapes
> with really bad splices  they tend to last quite long and well.
>
I was under the impression that the above was not the case, that
reel to reel analog tape was no longer being made.  Am I wrong in
this impression?  Also, we've had a hard time getting the machines
we do have fixed; one had to be abandoned because no one locally
available could fix it.

The reason I ask (funny how every time a question comes up here,
I open up ARCHIVES and people are askin' about it!) is that
tomorrow I'm going to a meeting with some folks from elsewhere on
campus who are wanting to "digitize" our entire collection of tapes
from the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History project.  This is
about 1500 reel-to-reel tapes, most about 35 years old, and
recorded at about every speed possible.  Their condition varies, and
the list of questions I have that I'm supposed to talk about
tomorrow is virtually the same as that posed on the ARCHIVES list:

-is CD the best format?  What are the benefits/drawbacks of CD?
-how do we transfer the tapes to CD?
-how long does it take to transfer one hour of tape to CD (duh!)

and on and on.  I get the impression this is another of those
administration ideas like "let's digitize the entire photo collection!"
Never mind that we have a million photos and I only have three
staff, and so on.  But we'll see tomorrow.

Roy


Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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