Digitalisation of Acetate Disc Audio Recordings

Description

The National Folklore Collection UCD holds a collection of approximately 1,750 acetate disc audio recordings made by the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-1970) in the period 1947-1955. The collection comprises 586 (1,172 sides) 16-inch discs, 70% of which were recorded at 78rpm (30% at 331/3rpm), and 1,167 (2,334 sides) 10/12-inch discs recorded at 331/3rpm. When the Commission was wound up in 1970, its collection of archive materials, including audio recordings, were transferred to the care of UCD, who hold copyright of these recordings. The collection as a whole amounts to more than 700 hours of speech, song and music. The recordings were made in a variety of field settings throughout Ireland and in the Commission’s offices in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. The collection is extremely well documented and the quality of the discs is generally excellent, although a small percentage display signs of laquer degradation. The discs are to be sampled to the highest digital audio standards and preserved as uncompressed audio files.