Digitizing Sound Archives at Royal Library of Belgium

Abstract

Music in general and recorded music in particular are rarely a priority for libraries’ digitization policies, although wax cylinders and 78rpm discs might be digitized for preservation and accessibility reasons. The respect of the original recording technique during the digitization process will ensure the scientific and artistic credibility of the digitized sources. The Royal Library of Belgium started in 2016 the digitization of its whole collection of 78rpm. Realized by subcontracting, this project of about 4,000 hours will constitute a large corpus of sources for the digital musicology upcoming needs.