SpokenWeb
Montreal

Celyn Harding Jones (2010); Chelsea Obodoechina (2020)

N (all forms of archived material)

U.S. Library of Congress

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/collections:@field(FLD003%2B@band(origf%2BSound%2BRecording)):heading=Original%2BFormat:%2BSound%2BRecordings:showDesc=1:SortField=TITLE

20202020/08/15

The American Memory Collections are online audio collections of the U.S. Library of Congress. It is a very basic, rudimentary site that lists the Collections by Title that includes location, category, dates, media types with a short description. Each Collection has a separate website that has a separate search and browsing functions, and have resources like "About the Collection, Map of the Region, Selected Bibliography, Collection Connections and How to Order the Audio".

The archive began in the 1920's by the Library of Congress, and around the same tme, the Library's Archive of American Folksong began collecting recordings. American Memory project began collecting audio and other documents in 1990, and by 1994, the library was able to use the internet to disseminate some of its information. It continues to digitize and post their documents online.

unable to get contact information. An email form available here: http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-memory.html

This search is terribly organized. There is a keyword search bar, but it does not search all of the collections. There is a list of items that are and aren't included in a link--which ends up being very confusing and cumbersome if you must go through different collections to search. Below the search bar, there is a list of some collections. You can click-off several collections to remove them from the search.

None. Most of these recordings are music files.

Information given: Item #, Title of song, Performers, Collected by, Date, Format, Notes, Call Number, Digital ID.

Some composers/musicians/recorders or collectors have a bibliographical page, but not every audio is related to context.

MP3, Real Audio, WaveForm.

Very little multi-media integrations: one picture is available on the page of every collection, unless you are looking at photographic records.

The recording opens a new play bar in the same window which is a black screen.

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UPDATE (Chelsea Obodoechina): Mobile access is possible, but the website does not cater to mobile devices. Functionality may vary depending on the device.

Browsing feels stunted on this site. Separate collections are on different websites, and it is sometimes difficult to navigate back to the home page or a different collection. The web design is very basic and looks like it hasn't updated since the early 2000's.

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This site must contain some amazing recordings, and hundreds of audio files, but because of it's outdated design, it is hard to navigate and understand exactly what's available online.