Since 2010, one of the college audiovisual technicians and I have been involved in a slightly scary project to digitise some of our audio recordings – those originating on shellac, lacquer or vinyl discs.

This project has been a success and we have learnt an awful lot about the format and the process of conservation and copying. It has also lead to interest from the BBC (after they initially responded to a blog post about the project in April 2011). Consequently, Juniper TV came to the Archives Centre last week to record a programme for BBC Radio Four’s ‘Archive on 4’, due to be aired on July 6th 2013.

Most of the recordings are from the 1940s-50s (though a few are from the 30s), many are from Churchill’s own record collection, and those prioritised were generally the instantaneous discs (known as lacquers or acetates). These are one-off or rare recordings and are also the most physically vulnerable as the lacquer coating (usually cellulose nitrate) degrades very quickly, eventually fracturing and peeling away from the core of the disc.

First, the conservation
Each disc was assessed, tested for reaction to water and if possible cleaned with deionised water and a non-ionic detergent used by conservators. Discs were wetted, avoiding the paper labels, and surface dirt and bloom were also mechanically removed with the gentle action of soft round-ended nylon bristles. The discs were then thoroughly rinsed in pure deionised water before air drying. When completely dry they were placed into archival envelopes and boxes.

Then the copying.
A professional turn table was used with special styli designed for coarse groove discs. The size and shape of the diamond stylus used for each disc was dependant upon the age and condition of the disc. Very light weight was used, though this was adjustable if necessary. As it turned out, all the lacquer discs so far captured have been 78s and have played from outside to inside, though this is not always the case. Information on the labels or original packaging often advises the user to use ‘special’ or trailing needles’ and to use ‘light-weight pick-up’. One recording supplied several ‘special’ needles, taped to the sleeve – now very rusty!

I handled the discs onto the player wearing gloves while the audiovisual technician, Chris, did the clever techie stuff to turn the analogue sound into digital and capture it into an uncompressed format to accepted archival standards. Chris became very expert at finding ways around chipped shellac, jumps, bumps or run-in grooves which could send the stylus too enthusiastically into the recording! All the while, we had to be aware that the grooves (or more strictly, the groove as there is usually only one continuous groove) were soft and not designed for repeated playback.

Sarah Lewery, Conservator

We often use our blog to explain more about what we do behind the scenes of the Archives Centre. Sarah Lewery, our conservator, and I have been giving some thought recently to providing more information for our users about how we package our collections to explain how different the material used in our reading room looks in comparison to the state in which it was kept by its creator or custodian. Using archives is about getting your hands on history but when collections arrive here they are often in a state that makes them hard to use and also very vulnerable to damage by handling. So we carry out a number of processes to transform boxes of material into a catalogued collection so that researchers can easily find what they are interested in (see our Collections page) and can handle the papers or request copies. Sarah has written a page for our website explaining how material is physically transformed and we’d love to know what you think. If you’d like to find out more about everything involved in the cataloguing process please have a look at Katharine’s article from June 2011 “How to scare an archivist” about the papers of Lord Kinnock.

Natalie Adams.

Papers before treatment.