Why aren't certain recordings online?

The Cylinder Project contains bibliographic information for over 8,000 cylinder titles representing more than 8,500 individual cylinders owned by the UCSB Library. Over 7,000 of these cylinders have been transferred and are available for listening. There are two main reasons some cylinders have not been transferred.

Backlog

Some cylinders are awaiting transfer and will be added at a future date. Our backlog of cylinders to be digitized exceeds the current capacity of our staff to catalog and digitize the cylinders. It costs the library $60 to catalog, digitize, rehouse, and preserve a single cylinder. Thanks to a grant from the GRAMMY Foundation we will be digitizing hundreds of cylinders in 2009-2010, but there are still hundreds more to be preserved and digitized.

"Adopt a Cylinder" Program

If you would like to "adopt" a cylinder, we will prioritize the digitization of a cylinder and put it online for you and others to listen to. [More information....]

Damaged Cylinders

Some cylinders were so moldy or damaged that our staff decided not to transfer them. Someday, the technology may exist to recover the sound from these cylinders or somebody may donate a copy in better condition. There are no plans right now to make further attempts to digitize these cylinders.

An initiative of the UC Santa Barbara Library • (805) 893-5444 • Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010. Direct questions or comments about the project or this page to the project staff or visit the help pages.