Audio Archives

Kootenay School of Writing Audio (KSW)

Person Describing Archive

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

Is this primarily a poetry audio site?

Y

Sponsoring Person or Institution

Kootenay School of Writing

Site URL

http://www.kswnet.org/fire/kswaudio-main.cfm

Site Last Updated
Date Visited

20202020/08/13

General Description of Archive

Archive of Audio recordings of poetry readings done at the Kootenay School of Writing as well as the VAG, and the R2B2.

UPDATE: Link is no longer functional. To access the website, visit http://kswnet.org/audio.html

Description of archive history or URL

The recordings were first started in 1985, with the New Poetics Colloquium, and have amassed into over 400 hours of poetry/poetics audio, spanning over 20 years. In the late 80's and early 90's, members would drop by to listen to these recordings, and in the mid 1990's, Gerry Gilbert made recordings for his radio show "radiofreerainforest", however it wasn't until the early 2000s and with the help of grants from the BC government that Donato Mancini was able to digitize the archive.

Contact information

info@kswnet.org

Searchable options

Search by Authors name, also "Sort by" First name, last name, Canada, Usa, UK, Other Nationalities, Readings Talks, Events.

Relation from the audio to the text

No transcriptions available.

Date/Time/Length/Context info about the audio items

Readings are broken up into several parts, Introduction (if applicable), Part A (four or five poems), Part B, etc. Date, time and location (and other readers at the same event) are listed. Length and time each part starts is noted. Also, if an author introduced another reading, these recordings are listed.

Author bios and context within literary history

No author bios or context, however all readings at the KSW by each author are listed. Sometimes individual poems are listed with where they were published.

Audio file type: streaming, download, file format, audio file compression quality (WAV, MP3, bitrate)

Audio files are streaming, mp3.

Multimedia integration (pictures, video, etc.)

Photos of author and photo of the location of reading. Photos are also provided from the Kootenay School of Writing archives and events.

Audio playback setup (opens in Flash player, on new blank screen, etc.)

Audio files open in a new screen.

Mobile access (i.e. accessible on smart phones, tablets, etc.)

None

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

Browsing

Browsing is standard. Sorting by author works well because you can see all of the recordings and readings the author did at KSW. The sort by reading is also a good browsing option because the viewer can search through other readers at the same event.

Discovery features (pre-made playlists; dynamic lists: lists of recent additions, featured items, related items, etc).
Interactivity and Web 2.0 features

Interactivity is low, apart from internet surfing.

Other notes

This is an interesting site because it began with one reading series, and has extended and expanded for over 20 years, now able to share their archive online.