Welcome to Florida Atlantic University, new Owls! As you embark on this exciting journey, you’re not just joining a university but becoming part of a vibrant community with endless opportunities for growth, exploration, and discovery. From the bustling campus life to the serene beaches nearby, FAU offers a unique environment where academic excellence meets a supportive, diverse community.

As you settle in and navigate your new life here, you’ll find FAU full of hidden gems—one in the Wimberly Library on the Boca Raton campus. I’m talking about the Recorded Sound Archives (RSA), a part of FAU Libraries that you might not have heard of yet but one that you’ll want to know about.

What is the Recorded Sound Archives?

The Recorded Sound Archives, or RSA, is more than just a collection of old records. It’s a treasure trove of cultural history preserved through sound. Established in 2002, the RSA began as a project dedicated to preserving Jewish music. Over the years, it has expanded to include various sound recordings, including Jazz and early American vintage recordings. Today, the RSA holds over 150,000 recordings across three collections, helping researchers worldwide.

Why Should You Care?

You might be wondering, “Why should I care about a bunch of old records?” The answer is simple: these recordings are more than just music; they are snapshots of history. Whether you’re studying music, history, or cultural studies or even love exploring the past, the RSA offers a unique way to connect with the stories and voices of those who came before us. Imagine hearing a jazz performance from the 1920s or a radio broadcast from World War II—these are the experiences the RSA can offer.

How Can You Get Involved?

The RSA isn’t just for researchers or history buffs—there are plenty of ways to get involved as a new student. The archive regularly hosts exhibits that are open to all students. These are great opportunities to learn more about the archive, meet like-minded peers, and contribute to the preservation efforts.

If you’re interested in working with the RSA, we offer an ongoing volunteering opportunity. Our current opportunity involves data entry, which helps us make more recordings discoverable to our researchers. This is a fantastic way to gain hands-on experience in archival work and more—skills that can be valuable no matter your field.

Visit Us & Get a Tour!

The next time you’re in the Wimberly Library, take a moment to visit the RSA. Whether you’re dropping by for a quick look or planning to spend hours exploring the collections, the RSA staff are always happy to welcome new faces and share their passion for preserving sound history.

Welcome again to FAU, and here’s to a fantastic year ahead! Remember, the RSA is here for you—whether you’re looking to dive deep into research, discover new interests, or take a break and listen to the sounds of the past.

Go Owls!

BOCA RATON, Fla. (Feb. 1, 2016)  ─ A year before Ekaterina Pervova graduated from Florida Atlantic University, she went to the Wimberly Library’s Recorded Sound Archives (RSA) and inquired about a volunteer assignment. One of the 19-year-old’s first assignments was translating the titles of classical music recordings from Russian into English. Pervova, who was later hired as a student worker at the RSA, can’t imagine a more rewarding use of her free time.

“I think that Florida Atlantic University has given me so much that it was important to find a way to give something back,” said Pervova, who in May earned a B.S. degree in psychology from FAU. “It was an amazing opportunity. I am very grateful.”

Volunteers have always been an integral part of FAU Libraries, but a couple of years ago, the Wimberly Library’s staff noticed more students were inquiring about volunteer assignments. Carol Hixson, Dean of University Libraries, supports such involvement, and in fact, has organized a program to recruit and involve students in meaningful volunteer roles throughout the library.

“Some of our students have free time throughout the day and many of them spend a great deal of that time in the library,” said Hixson. “We encourage students to take advantage of volunteer and internship opportunities within the Libraries as a way of learning more about our collections and services and gaining some practical experience to help them after graduation. We consider such opportunities to be another way we can contribute to our students’ success and keep them engaged with the University as alumni.”

The RSA, a robust digitization operation for all types of sound recordings that have been gifted to FAU, was a perfect match for Pervova. She credits her grandmothers, one a nuclear physicist and the other an economist, with introducing her to art at an early age. Both grandmothers love music, enjoy opera and the ballet, and always had the TV on an entertainment show when Pervova visited.

“They encouraged me to participate in singing, painting, dancing, sculpting and other arts,” said Pervova. “They would always take me to theaters and museums and they continue to find tickets when I visit them in Moscow.”

Many of the recordings that Pervova translates for the RSA are folk songs from 1910, while others are from the early 1950s and 1960s. She remembers hearing many of the recordings during childhood and at family celebrations in Russia.

“When I see something I know, I start humming it and I think back to a time when I heard that song,” said Pervova.

The biggest challenge Pervova faces while translating the music titles is trying to find a word-for-word translation. Many of the songs she is translating are about the culture of the Russian people and do not make sense outside of the Russian culture. She knows where to go for help, though.

“I often Skype my grandma while I’m translating to show her a particular record and when she sees it, she is delighted and she says ‘Oh! I know that one,’” said Pervova.

Russian Music Titles to Be Added…

The RSA will add the titles of the approximately 100 rare recordings that Pervova is translating to its database once the work is completed. Pervova will also translate the RSA’s Finnish labels into English. The recordings will be digitalized and made available on the RSA’s research station for professors and students.

Pervova said it’s her small way of giving back to the FAU campus, where she has studied since she enrolled in the Alexander D. Henderson University School in fourth grade. When it was time for ninth-grade, she was accepted into the academically-rigorous FAU High School, which offers students a chance to earn three years of college credit on FAU’s main campus. She plans to graduate from FAU in the spring of 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Tammy Ferguson, director of the A.D. Henderson University School/FAU High School, said she is very proud to say that “giving back” is part of the culture that has been created at the Henderson University School and FAU High.

“Ekaterina Pervova is an exceptional young lady who has impressed me from the first time I met her,” said Ferguson. “She has always given back to make sure other students have the best experience possible on the university campus.”

After graduation from FAU, Pervova would like to continue here for graduate school at FAU and work as a researcher on the FAU campus. Eventually, she would like to work for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Pervova would like to focus her research on Brain Syndrome and dementia” and her ultimate goal is to find a way to help people with organic brain syndrome.

“Everything about the brain fascinates me, including its adaptability, its plasticity, its ability to modify and regulate itself through interactions with the environment,” said Pervova.

“I used dementia as an example because it is a very hot topic in the field. There are many different types of dementia, but the most common types are Alzheimer’s and vascular.

“It is imperative that a treatment for dementia is found soon because the major brain change involved in the disease is nerve cell damage and plaque deposits. If we can find a way to stop or reduce nerve cell damage, then we can find similar applications of this with other diseases.”

For more information on student volunteer opportunities at FAU Libraries, call 561-297-6911. Call 561-297- 0080 for student volunteer assignments in the Recorded Sound Archives.

Maxine was nominated for the prestigious Jeffrey Gabor Exemplary Employee Award by Rita Pellen, Interim Dean of FAU Libraries. In her nomination letter Pellen praised Schackman for her hard work building up the Judaica Sound Archives since the early 2000’s.

In 2009, when she stepped in as director, Schackman expanded the scope of the online archives by including rare historic vintage and jazz recordings.

In 2013 the Recorded Sound Archives made the news when, with the help of Peter Muldavin, the “Kiddie Rekord King,” they rescued over 800 vintage children’s recordings from a flooded storage facility after SuperStorm Sandy hit Long Island. Schackman and her crew worked tirelessly for a year to digitize the sound and images that had been damaged. Now this wonderful collection of recordings are available online. For more about this story see video here.

Pellen also praised Schackman for being a leader in the development and expansion of the Judaica Sound Archives, making it the largest online collection of Jewish recordings in the world. “Under her leadership the RSA at FAU Libraries has become known as the ‘go to’ place for rare and difficult to find recordings of Jewish and other vintage music.”

According to Schackman, “When I became director in 2009 my first goal was to totally revamp our very popular website. It was a great website and had an amazing number of digitized sound tracks but it was old technology and I knew we just couldn’t survive in the 21st century without going mobile. Now the JSA and other RSA recordings are available on mobile devices using streaming audio technology. Now people can take the music with them wherever they go.”

“This award means a lot to me. I have dedicated the past 13 years of my life to the Judaica Sound Archives and more recently, the Recorded Sound Archives. I worked very hard but I loved every minute of it. I loved talking to groups and introducing them to the wonderful music we have rescued and preserved. I am very proud of the contribution that I have made to FAU Libraries. I am very grateful to my dedicated staff and to the many students who have worked for us over the years.  I am especially grateful to the volunteers without whom none of this would have been possible. This award is a wonderful capstone for my career since I will be retiring on June 30, 2015.”

Looking for local volunteers

RSA’s sound technician, Ben Roth, set up a table and tried to entice passersby to sign up at Boca Pointe’s Volunteer Fair on Tuesday, January 20, 2015. Not much luck.

People are often amazed at the number of recordings that the RSA has been able to digitize and put online. “How do you do it?” That’s a question we often hear.

The answer? VOLUNTEERS!!!!

But why should you volunteer when you have so many other things to do? What’s in it for you? So here is my top ten reasons to volunteer at the Recorded Sound Archives in FAU Libraries, Boca Raton.

10. You can reminisce about some of the world’s greatest Jazz musicians as you enter information from LPs into the database.

9. You can learn more about Jazz history, songs and musicians by reading the backs of album covers.

8. You can improve your mind and improve your memory by exercising your brain muscles.

7. You can improve your manual dexterity and keyboard skills.

6. You can feel good about spending your time doing something useful and worthwhile.

5. You can volunteer whenever you have time to kill as long as it is on Mon through Thurs between 9am and 4pm.

4. You can enjoy the ambiance of FAU’s beautiful Boca Raton campus and the Wimberly Library.

3. You might make new friends.

2. You can see and hear demonstrations of the RSA’s antique equipment, including an original Edison cylinder player and two console Victrolas from the 1920s.

And the number 1 reason to volunteer at the RSA…..

We need you!

Contact Alethea Perez at 561-297-0080 for more information.

RSA director, Maxine Schackman, told the audience at the International Association of Yiddish Clubs  conference in Boca Raton that FAU Libraries has been collecting Judaic recordings since 2002.

“We take these antique recordings and digitize them so that a new generation can learn and enjoy what came before them,” she said.

The Recorded Sound Archives website has the largest searchable online collection of Jewish music in the world with recordings by 7,344 Jewish performers, 13,776 albums and 72, 577 song titles.

Among the musical pieces Schackman presented that had the audience laughing and singing along were “Roumania, Roumania,” written and performed by Yiddish theater star Aaron Lebedeff; “Good Night ‘Oy Vey’ Irene”, a Yiddish parody of “Good Night Irene” sung by Seymour Rechtzeit and written by his wife, Miraim Kressyn; and “Bei Mir Bistu Shein,” a Yiddish swing song that became a number-one single in America in 1938 as recorded by the Andrews Sisters.

CLICK HERE to listen to a selection of Yiddish recordings.

CLICK HERE for full story written by Randall Lieberman and published in Jewish Journal.

 

Over 300 FAU students and invited guests participated in the Recorded Sound Archives Vinyl Record Give-away event on October 20 and 21, 2014 at the Wimberly Library’s fifth floor on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

More than 1,500 vinyl LP records were distributed as well as cassette tapes, and 45 rpm records (singles).

Established in 2002 to collect, organize and protect vintage audio recordings, the RSA houses more than 250,000 classical, jazz, Judaic and other vintage recordings, making FAU Libraries one of the top academic libraries in the nation for sound recordings.

All the recordings in the archives were donated to the university by collectors and institutions. Recent efforts to organize and inventory the back-log of thousands of donated recordings resulted in the identification of duplicate and excess records that were not needed for the RSA collection. The RSA regularly receives about 10,000 donated recordings each year.

Some students expressed disappointment when they learned that classic rock icons such as the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and Alice Cooper were not among the recordings being offered. One student commented, “Man, these are really, really old records.”

Yet, they were scooping up albums by Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Jack Benny and Robert Goulet. “Why did you choose this record I asked?” Very often the answer was something like, “I’m not sure but I think I remember my grandmother mentioning that she liked this singer.” For many adults of my age these recordings represented a “walk down memory lane”, but for these students it was a treasure trove of discovery. They asked for historical information about shows like “My Fair Lady” and “Oklahoma.” They showed me recordings of operas and wanted to know if Leontyne Price or Robert Merrill were good singers.

A group of young men scooped up a bunch of 45 rpm records and were surprised when I mentioned to them that they would need a special insert to fit in the large hole in order to play them on a standard phonograph. Many students said they had phonograph players and some said that they would go out and buy one just so they could listen to the music they had collected. A few lucky students were able to find used turntables at the give-away which also included several pieces of used equipment.

Most of us have never heard of the Gilbert Mudge Award, but in the world of reference librarians it is the equivalent of winning an Oscar.

The Judaica Sound Archives and the entire staff of the Recorded Sound Archives is pleased to congratulate Dr. Miller on this well-deserved award.  Excellence in reference librarianship with a strong commitment to instruction has been the hallmark of his long and distinguished career.

Since his arrival at FAU in 1987 the Wimberly Library has undergone amazing changes. Modern technologies have dramatically changed the way that students and faculty use library spaces. Stacks once filled with scientific journals have been replaced by rows of computers where students can access a myriad of electronic journals and proprietary databases in addition to the ever-popular Google.

Dr. Miller has also been committed to strengthening the library’s relationship with its surrounding community. Wanting to make  the library relevant and distinctive has been the driving force behind the creation of projects and programs which are truly unique in the world of academic libraries.

Thanks to the vision of Dr. William Miller, the last two decades have been a time of innovative change at FAU Libraries’ special collections. Below is a list of his most notable accomplishments in this area.

Established in 1997, the Klezmer Company Orchestra,is the only professional ensemble-in-residence at any academic library. Using the library’s sheet music collection to create new and exciting programs, the KCO concert is the cornerstone of the annual Kultur Festival, a week-long celebration of Jewish culture.

 

The library acquired the Marvin and Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection of rare Americana in 2006. These authentic artifacts are often on display in a newly constructed suite on the Wimberly Library’s 5th floor.

 

 

The Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts is unique for viewing “books as art.” It features handmade, one-of-a-kind books created by artists.  It opened in 2007 in a newly constructed suite on the Library’s 3rd floor.

 

 

Beginning with only a few hundred Cantorial recordings in 2002, the Judaica Sound Archives has grown into the world’s largest online collection of recorded Jewish music. Today, more than 150,000 donated sound recordings constitute the rapidly growing Recorded Sound Archives, which continues the JSA mission and website (www.fau.edu/jsa) and also contains an impressive collection of early vintage phonograph records and more than 21,000 Jazz albums.

 March 1 – 8, 2014

6th Annual Kultur Celebration

Click here for full schedule and more information

                                                      

                    Florida Atlantic University Libraries

 

Festival Highlights

Saturday, March 1, 2014 @ 7:00 p.m

Film: “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness”

Chock full of  humor, this documentary film explores the rebellious life of Sholem Aleichem as he experiences the tug of war between nostalgia and a modern Jewish identity.

 

Sunday, March 2, 2014 @ 3:00 p.m.

Klezmer Company Orchestra — ¡Jubano Jazz!

Energetic arrangements of Klezmer melodies fused with Latin percussion, Argentinean Tango and Afro-Cuban dance beats and revitalized classic songs from the Yiddish theatre.

 

 

Wednesday, March 5, 2014 @ 2:00 p.m.
Martin Bookspan Reminisces: My famous musical friends

Renowned PBS commentator of Live from Lincoln Center, Martin Bookspan is also a noted author,  and the well-known host for live radio broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. He shares personal stories and photographs about his friendships with legends such as Serge Koussevitzky, Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Jan Pierce, Richard Tucker and Michael Tilson Thomas. Presented in conjunction with the Judaica Sound Archives.

 

Thursday, March 6, 2014 @ 2:00 p.m.

Leonard Lehrman, pianist and Helene Williams, soprano, return to Kultur Festival with guest cantors from New York City: soprano Faith Steinsnyder and tenor David Perper performing a unique concert of “Jewish Opera” in various languages. Highlights include excerpts of Halévy’s famous La Juive, Spektor’s Lady of the Castle, Mandelbaum’s The Village, Blitzstein/Lehrman’s Tales of Malamud, and arias by Goldfaden.

Dr. Randall Goldberg, Asst. Prof of Music History at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University in Ohio has been digging for “treasure” at the Judaica Sound Archives at the Wimberly Library on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

He has no map and so far has not discovered a spot marked with an “X.” But he has spent weeks tirelessly searching at FAU’s Judaica Sound Archives through thousands of 78 rpm recordings for information about how Jewish identity was expressed in 20th-century music. Like Indiana Jones, Randy Goldberg feels like he is on a quest. Allowing his intellectual curiosity to lead him on a fantastic journey back in time, he relishes finding little known tid-bits of information.

“For me the passion is in the records.  There is a childish love that I have for it. I used to watch Indiana Jones films and that is the sense of adventure I have. I am always looking for some hidden treasure whether it is here at FAU’s Judaica Sound Archives or in an old record store in Pittsburgh.”

“Jewish musicians have a cool niche. I love to find weird mash-ups, like Chassidic disco albums or Jewish sacred music set to a Carribean beat.”

Prof. Goldberg  doesn’t find the enormity of the JSA collection to be overwhelming.  Quite the opposite.  “Just being being here and being immersed in the entirety of this whole thing. It fuels my enthusiasm and my passion for my research project.” he says.

Dr. Goldberg spends his time searching through the JSA’s database, locating the recordings that he is interested in and then entering information about those recordings into his laptop for use later in his research. It might seem like tedious work to some but Dr. Goldberg seems more like a “kid in a candy shop” than anything else.

JSA: “You seem to be having a good time visiting us and working here.”

GOLDBERG: “I love doing this. And the beautiful Florida weather isn’t bad either.  Back home in Ohio there are 12″ of snow on the ground!”

Dr. Goldberg achieved a BM in classical guitar performance at the University of Texas at Austin and a MM in musical performance at the New England Conservatory. He earned his doctorate at Indiana University. He is an Assistant Professor of Music History at Youngstown State University, College of Creative Arts and Communication, Dana School of Music. He  specializes in the music and music literature of early modern Europe.  In addition to teaching courses, Dr. Goldberg directs the Youngstown State University Early Music Ensemble and is the president of the Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

By Maria Murriel

Florida Atlantic University’s Recorded Sound Archives at the Wimberly Library will be purged this January. Well, sort of.

The library’s sound archive is digitized, and duplicate records or those that don’t fit with the school’s collection will be given away Jan. 6-10, the Sun Sentinel reports. Possible finds include Glenn Miller, Barbra Streisand, Broadway, Christmas and Jewish albums.

The Nielsen Soundscan reported vinyl to be 2 percent of all albums sold. FAU archivist Ben Roth says the medium has a “warmer sound” than digitally reproduced music.

For more information on FAU’s vinyl giveaway, read the Sun Sentinel story.

Original Source – http://wlrn.org/post/sun-sentinel-faus-vinyl-giveaway-starts-jan-6