Category: Media Coverage

Translations of Russian Music Titles Allowed FAU Graduate to Give Back

By , May 24, 2016 12:51 pm

Russian Music Titles TranslatedBOCA 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.DSC_1769

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.

Prestigious award goes to Dean of FAU Libraries

By , April 21, 2014 11:49 am
Dr. William Miller, winner of the 2014 Gilbert Mudge Award, stands in the atrium of the Wimberly Library on FAU's Boca Raton campus.

Dr. William Miller, winner of the 2014 Gilbert Mudge Award, stands in the atrium of the Wimberly Library on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

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.

Kultur2014

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.

 

Spirit of Americ 2 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.

 

 

book center 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.

 

 

JSA phono logo 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.

FAU Sound Archives Rescues Vintage Kiddie Records Damaged by Hurricane Sandy

By , January 27, 2014 1:40 pm

By Fire Ant, New Times Palm Beach

The entrance to the Recorded Sound Archives at FAU is guarded by the remnants of hi-fi history. Walnut-paneled gramophones from the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties line one wall. On shelves across the way, postwar portable sound systems and reel-to-reel tape decks compete for shelf space with 78 rpm and 45 rpm records from historic labels long gone – Decca (now owned by Vivendi), RCA Victor and Okeh (now owned by Sony).

Now in its third year, the archive is dedicated to the preservation and digitization of vintage audio — music as recorded on vinyl and, before that, shellac discs, which degrade over time as needles bounce through grooves. One of the few institutions of its kind — with more than 100,000 items in its collections of jazz, Judaica and the 78 rpm records that predated the long-playing album — the archive has become an invaluable resource for musicologists and historians from around the world.

The archive’s latest addition is a trove of 786 vintage kiddie records from the collection of “Kiddie Rekord King” Peter Muldavin, perhaps the world’s leading expert on early children’s recordings. A Manhattan resident, Muldavin had the records stored in his mother-in-law’s Long Island garage when Hurricane Sandy struck two years ago. The storm surge left many of the discs mud-stained and warped, while the waterlogged record sleeves and artwork became mildewed and moldy.

With very little commercial value left for Muldavin, he reached out to the RSA. “To collectors the quality of everything counts — the packaging, the labels,” RSA director Dr. Maxine Schackman told us. “We welcomed his donation with open arms. For us, the cultural value was still there.”

Still, in addition to audio digitization, the colorful packaging that was so much a part of the kiddie records’ appeal is also being repaired and restored (to the extent possible), then digitally scanned. About one-third of the Muldavin donation has been digitized so far, the sound cleaned of crackles and hisses in the process, distilled to the nostalgic essence of what seems (and sounds) like a more innocent time.

The kiddie records database should be complete early this year. Because of copyright issues, though, access to the sound files will be restricted. Academics and other researchers will be able to listen over the Internet through a password-protected website or, by appointment, at one of the archive’s listening stations.

Dr. Schackman hopes to make song samples from the kiddie records available to the general public, as has been done with earlier RSA donations. The idea, she says, is “to make the forgetten music unforgettable.”

By Fire Ant — an invasive species, tinged bright red, with an annoying, sometimes-fatal sting — covers Palm Beach County. Got feedback or a tip? Contact Fire.Ant@BrowardPalmBeach.com.

Original Source: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/countygrind/2014/01/fau_sound_archives_rescues_vin.php

 

SUN SENTINEL: FAU’s Vinyl Giveaway Starts Jan. 6

By , December 23, 2013 1:52 pm

By

Credit Matthias Rhomberg / Flickr CC

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 Sourcehttp://wlrn.org/post/sun-sentinel-faus-vinyl-giveaway-starts-jan-6

FAU sound archive has free vinyl records up for grabs Jan. 6-10

By , December 20, 2013 1:56 pm

By Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel

 

Alethea Perez, an operations coordinator at Florida Atlantic University’s Recorded Sound Archives, holds a damaged children’s record that will be repaired, digitized and archived. (Mark Randall / Sun Sentinel)

Florida Atlantic University is offering a free and legal way for music lovers to add to their collections, with no downloading required.

The university’s Recorded Sound Archives at the Wimberly Library, which collects and preserves music, is holding its third annual giveaway of vinyl records Jan. 6 to 10. The retro collection includes more than 2,000 albums from some of the biggest stars from the 1940s to the 1990s, including Glenn Miller, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow.

There are also a number of Broadway cast albums, including “Fiddler on the Roof” and “South Pacific,” Christmas albums, Jewish albums and some specialty records like “25 Polka Greats.”

And if you think vinyl is dead, think again. It was the fastest growing music format for the first six months of 2013, according to Nielsen Soundscan, which compiles music sales. During that period, 2.9 million vinyl albums were sold, a third more than the previous year. Vinyl accounts for about 2 percent of all albums sold.

“Five years ago, 80 percent of my sales came from CDs and 20 percent from vinyl. Now it’s 90 percent vinyl,” said Ritchie Siegrist, owner of the Record Rack, which sells new and used music in Pompano Beach. “People have found that the quality of sound is far superior to a CD or an MP3.”

The FAU music archives has been accepting donations of old records since 2002. It started with a focus on Jewish music and later expanded to include classical, jazz, opera and children’s records. The music is digitized and archived, and available to students, faculty and researchers. Some recordings are also available to the public online.

The records that FAU is giving away either don’t fit into FAU’s collections, or they are duplicate copies.

“These excess recordings pile up over time, so each year we give the community a chance to browse through them and take what they want,” said Maxine Schackman, director of the archives.

Ben Roth, an archivist for the FAU Sound Archives, said vinyl has a “warmer sound, not as sterile,” as digital music.

Today every major music label is releasing new albums and re-releasing old ones on vinyl, Siegrist said. Turntables and needles are easy to find in stores. In addition to specialty shops, vinyl records and accessories can be found inside big chain stories such as Best Buy and Urban Outfitters.

Classic rock is particularly popular on vinyl, including albums by the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, Siegrist said.

Roth said he was surprised at how popular the giveaway was last year, particularly with students. The collection started with more than 20 cartons of boxes, and by the last day, only two cartons were left.

“Some gave them to their grandparents. Some kept them for themselves and played them on turntables given to them by their parents,” he said.

The library will also offer a small collection of music on cassettes and 8-tracks, but demand for those has remained relatively low, Roth said.

stravis@tribune.com or Twitter @smtravis

If you go:

What: FAU vinyl music giveaway

When: Jan. 6 to 10, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Fifth floor of the Wimberly Library, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton

Original Article – http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-12-20/news/fl-fau-vinyl-giveaway-20131220_1_vinyl-christmas-albums-music-sales

Best events this week: Record Giveaway at FAU Libraries

By , December 10, 2013 1:47 pm

SouthFlorida.com
Monday – Record giveaway

( Patricia Koppisch/Courtesy / December 10, 2013 )

Further proof that vinyl records are reasserting themselves in the collections of audio junkies are figures from music sales-tracker Nielsen SoundScan, released last week, which revealed that retailers moved 6.1 million wax units in 2013. That’s a 33 percent upswing over 2012’s haul of 2.55 million, making vinyl the fastest growing music format of the year.So there may be abundant interest in the free records that Florida Atlantic University’s Recorded Sound Archives are slinging starting Monday at the Wimberly Library (777 Glades Road, Boca Raton). About 2,000 retro records are in FAU’s third annual giveaway, harvested through private donations and duplicates that don’t fit with the university’s own collection.Up for grabs are albums from Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Glenn Miller; Broadway recordings from “Fiddler on the Roof,” Gilbert and Sullivan and others; and genre music spanning jazz to polka. The giveaway runs 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday, Jan. 10, on the library’s fifth floor, and then resumes Jan. 27-Jan. 31.

Boca Magazine highlights FAU Sound Archives Collection

By , June 28, 2013 2:49 pm

In a small room on the fifth floor of FAU’s Wimberly Library, zippered bags clutch dozens of record sleeves of vintage children’s music, relics from another time. There’s Bongo, a circus bear unicycling on a tightrope and voiced by Dinah Shore. There’s “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” whose record sleeve depicts just that. There’s the Three Billy Goats Gruff, Pinocchio, Little Toot and Humpty Dumpty. One album cover, featuring Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, includes a pencil-written note in the margin: “To: Dick Hertz. Birthday, Jan. 20, 1951. From: Mommy.”

These forgotten treasures are currently the domain FAU’s Recorded Sound Archives (RSA), which began in 2009 as an extension of its popular Judaica Sound Archives; nowadays, the institution restores and digitizes lost and important music of all kinds. These recently obtained children’s record sleeves, their once-vibrant cover art damaged by flood and mold from Hurricane Sandy, are mostly second copies from the vast collection of Peter Muldavin, the world’s foremost expert on vintage children’s records. When his Long Island storage facility suffered storm damage, he donated its contents – 786 records – to the RSA, whose passionate archivist, Ben Roth, is a friend. Some of the 78 rpm records date back to the 1920s, bearing price tags of a quarter a piece.

The restoration business, on Roth and company’s end, is a long and painstaking one. They are still in the process of entering all the data, with plans to release some of their results through their website starting in January. Roth showed me a bit of the RSA’s fascinating restorative process, some of whose accoutrements look like something out the old Mousetrap game. First, the records are dipped, like strawberries in chocolate, in a motorized tank devised for cleaning jewelry, in which ultrasonic waves eliminate the ingrained dirt. Then they are positioned in front of an industrial hair dryer haphazardly duct-taped into position on a metal stand – an appropriately primitive way of cleaning these analog goodies.

As for the damaged, crackly sound of the records, that can be polished by more modern means – Sony’s Sound Forge computer software. The sleeves have been photographed and inventoried for digital restorations, but unfortunately the originals in the zipper bags will be discarded – their damage is too severe.

If you make an appointment, you may be able to listen to some of these recordings in the RSA’s headquarters, while admiring the collection’s vintage turntables, including an entirely hand-cranked 1911 Victrola and a 1924 credenza model that Roth says “cost more than a car” at the time of its manufacture.

Link to original blog post: http://www.bocamag.com/blog/2013/06/28/record-time/

Old-style Record Store Opens in San Francisco

By , December 14, 2011 2:43 pm

The Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University Libraries was delighted when our friends Josh Kun and Roger Bennett told us that they  were putting together an album of Tikva Records favorites!  As you may remember, the JSA provided many of the LP covers for their book,  And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl, which was published in November 2008.

Now, as part of the Idelsohn Society, they have released the album,  Songs for the Jewish-American Jet Set: The Tikva Records Story 1950-1973. To celebrate this accomplishment they have opened a 1950′s style record store right in San Francisco’s Mission District (3191 Mission Street). The store is open for business from December 1st  through the end of Hanukkah (December 28).

Of course, we wish them great success.  So the Judaica Sound Archives sent them seven cartons of Jewish LPs (many of them on the Tikva label) to be offered at their record store.

Click here to find out more about what they are doing.

Preserving Jewish culture with digitization – NYC Conference

By , November 16, 2011 1:55 pm

Dr. William Miller (Dean of FAU Libraries) at the Center for Jewish History in NYC

I just spent two days in NYC at the Center for Jewish History . Over 125 scholars and librarians from around the world, including Dr. William Miller (Dean of FAU Libraries) and myself,  gathered to share our expertise using digital and internet technologies for the study and preservation of Jewish culture and history.

Coordinating such preservation efforts and minimizing duplication is a massive undertaking. The purpose of this conference was to create connections between the various institutions and projects in order to foster communication and partnerships.

Many of the presenters talked about projects which were enormous and diverse. Gunter Waibel, Director of the Digitization Program Office at the Smithsonian Institution spoke eloquently about the challenges of coordinating many and varied collections of items.

CJH is located at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan

We listened to presentations about digitally reconstructing ancient sites in Israel, preserving ancient manuscripts, and the status of 3-D digitization efforts. As you would expect, most of the conference concerned itself with written materials and cultural objects.

At the Judaica Sound Archives our only concern is to rescue and preserve Jewish sound recordings. It was inspiring to realize that we are just one part of a larger world-wide effort. I was delighted to see Aaron Lansky of the National Yiddish Book Center who had been so important in our early efforts to create an archive of Jewish recordings. I also had the opportunity to meet with Lisa Rivo, associate director at the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University.

This event provided a wonderful opportunity for us to share concerns and to learn from others in the field. I left the conference feeling honored to be a part of this historic effort and confident in our direction.

Vinyl record give-away

By , November 3, 2011 6:07 pm

 

       

On Wednesday, November 2, 2011 FAU students and staff vistied the archives, checked-out the demonstration of obsolete audio equipment and browsed through vinyl LPs as part of the first ever Snap-shot Day at FAU Libraries!

The free record give-away will continue through the month of November on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 on Wimberly Library’s 5th floor.

Students also enjoyed demonstrations of the Recorded Sound Archives antique and obsolete equipment. Many had never seen a 78 rpm recording, a Victrola phongraph, an 8-track tape player or a 45 rpm record changer before.

FAU students hear 8-track tapes for the first time and learn about how this technology began and why it died out.

RCA Victor 45 rpm record changer circa 1948 – 1955

1924 RCA Victor Victrola 78 rpm player.

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