ABSTRACT
This article has five sections: 1. General considerations; 2. Phonograph records; 3. Magnetic recordings; 4. Compact discs; 5. Archival work. 1. General Considerations. In the history of communication, the invention of sound recordings can be considered comparable to the invention of the printing press. It permitted people to preserve oral material so that it could be heard in aural form again and again, just as the printing press has enabled people to pre-serve oral material in written form, available to those who can read. Today the sound recording is as important an information medium as the written word. Collections of sound recordings are a heavily used part of library and archival collections, yet less is known about the preservation of sound recordings than of printed materials.
