From the federal to the state and local levels, recent years have witnessed growing interest in radio preservation among archival organizations across the United States. This issue of the Journal of Archival Organization seeks to capture the present state and future of radio preservation, documenting key issues, projects, strategies, and initiatives pursued by contemporary archivists and preservation groups working within this rapidly expanding area of archival practice. What possibilities do new archiving technologies afford, and what new systems and workflows have developed around them? What challenges or opportunities do current laws present for effective preservation and access? What financial and administrative obstacles do preservationists face, and what strategies have they pursued in the face of these challenges? How have preservation workers sought to expand traditional forms of radio content and diversify the digital record? Who does the work of radio preservation, what measures are being taken to prepare professionals and other relevant groups to perform these duties?
For consideration, please email inquiries and short proposals to guest editor Shawn VanCour at svancour@ucla.edu, no later than October 31st.
Contributions should consist of 15-20 page essays that position themselves in relation to relevant scholarship and professional publications in archival studies, library studies, critical data studies, digital humanities, media studies, and other cognate fields. Articles selected for inclusion must be submitted by January 13, 2020 and will be published in the journal’s Spring 2020 issue.
Final submissions should conform to professional academic publishing conventions and must clear the journal’s double-blind review process for successful publication
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Legal issues impacting preservation and access (changes in copyright law, strategies governing deposit agreements, repatriation issues, digital distribution methods)
- Innovations in preservation methods (new technologies for digitization or storage of radio materials, new conservation strategies, designing new preservation workflows)
- Metadata management (automated transcription technologies, competing content management systems, challenges and strategies of radio description)
- Institutional factors (advocacy work for radio preservation within archival organizations, reevaluation of best practices, shifting institutional priorities)
- Education and outreach (use of radio materials in the classroom, public screenings and community engagement, preservation training, advocacy for archival professionals and radio materials within collecting institutions)
- Diversifying the digital record (activist archiving strategies, identifying relevant stakeholders, funding challenges)
- Collaborative approaches (cross-sector preservation work within and across archiving institutions, collaborations with professionals in cognate fields, community-based strategies and participatory archiving, crowdsourcing initiatives)
- Archiving born-digital content (platform-specific strategies and preservation issues, technological challenges and innovations, professional vs. nonprofessional productions)
Publishing in the Archives Profession 