AVPS Makes The Rolling Stone

AVPS President, Chris Lacinak was recently quoted in the Rolling Stone article “File Not Found: The Record Industry’s Digital Storage Crisis” (written by David Browne and published in the December 23, 2010-January 11, 2011 issue). Mr. Browne interviewed Chris as an expert reference in the area of digital preservation and file management of audiovisual materials to help illuminate the challenges faced by record labels in accessing legacy digital files.

The article was prompted by this summer’s release of “The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age” by the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) and Library of Congress Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Chris’ testimony in front of the NRPB as a representative for the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the Audio Engineering Society Technical Committee on Archiving, Restoration and Digital Libraries was used as background for the writing of that report. An essential text, the report is not a damnation of digital media and digital preservation but rather a call for renewed focus on the issues facing audio preservation that are having near term effects on accessibility and persistence.

We’re very happy to have been a part of the Rolling Stone article, but even happier that they took note of the issue and reported on it, which also shows what an important impact the NRPB report is having in creating awareness for audio preservation.

(And for those of you surprised we did not make the cover, Rolling Stone offered it to us but we had to turn it down. For modesty’s sake.)