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T HIS month
Mediawatching has a decidedly musical feel about it, as we kick off a hat trick of stories with a
tale about obsolete formats. The Smithsonian magazine (https://bit. ly/3LpFYuf) reports that New York Public Library is about to reveal the content of 100s of wax recording cylinders that have not been listened to for more than 100 years. The wax cylinders are an early form of audio recording, but they are notoriously fragile and unsurprisingly their popularity waned once more robust recording methods were invented.
Their delicate nature meant that the library has been unable to play the recordings for fear of damaging them, but a new machine has now made it possible. The Endpoint machine uses lasers to read the cylinders, converting optical patterns etched in the wax into audio. New York Public Library assistant curator for music and recorded sound Jessica Wood said: “They could be people’s birthday parties. Or they could be The Star-Spangled Banner or something incredibly common.” Any archivists looking for more defunct formats can contact Mediawatching about it’s extensive collection of mini- discs that are languishing in the attic of Mediawatching Towers. Sensible offers only, please.
Next, we have a double A-side (so to speak) from Alan Bullimore. First is from Radio 4’s early morning news programme. Alan says: “The new archive of popular music at the John Rylands Library featured on the Radio 4 Today Programme on 6 April. It took me a while to work out the Madchester connection on hearing the Happy Mondays at 7am.
“Curator Professor Jon Savage went on to explain the cultural importance of the collection.
The library will now include one of the oldest versions of the New Testament, and the oldest versions of New Order. Step on indeed.”
Our final musical foray relates to Pamela Rooke, aka the Queen of Punk, Jordan Mooney, who died recently at the age of 66. Many of the tributes paid to her, “featured her at Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s Sex Boutique on the Kings Road,” according to Alan. However it was aforementions
April-May 2022
broadcaster and writer Jon Savage who ensured these pages also included a small mention of her passing, after Alan shared Jon’s Tweet (https://bit. ly/39lXJg2) that included a picture of Jordan at the British Library in 2016. Next we have a piece of social media skill from the librarians at Pflugervile Library, in the US. Following a typo in a local newspaper, the library headed to Facebook to alert users to the error, saying: “ATTENTION – there will be no snakes at this Friday’s Anti Prom in the library. There was a typo in the local paper that said we will have snakes. We will have snacks. Snacks is what we will have.”
Keen not to disappoint anyone who was expecting a close encounter with snake, adding: “Not to say we have anything against snakes. In fact, snakes will be at the library in May during the Teen De Stressing Day: Reptile Hangout.”
Thanks to John Scott Cree for tipping us off.
Our final piece for this month is a case of the media eating itself (not something these pages could ever be accused of), as the Guardian reports on the British Library’s exhibition looking at press freedom (https://
bit.ly/3kAaQg5). The BL’s exhibition, Breaking the News, includes computer hard drives, that were destroyed by Guardian executives to avoid handing over leaked classified documents to the government. The hard drives contained information obtained by Edward Snowden. Lead curator of the exhibition Luke McKernan told the paper: “There has never been a time when news has been so hotly debated, so sought after and so diverse in its forms. Each story in the exhibition tells us something different about why the news matters.” IP
Libraries are not just about books. INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 57
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