Brian Dunbar, Spring 2022

Brian Dunbar, New York Public Radio, Spring 2022

At New York Public Radio I assisted with the digitization of a few radio programs from the archives. In 2020 NYPR received a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation to fund the digitization of over 100 years of radio history. I assisted mainly with two shows, On the Line and Around New York. Every day I went in and sorted through information from 1/4" open reel audio tapes and occasionally paper programs or run down sheets to update the intellectual information of each tape. I also went through error reports and updated the metadata for each tape to the best of my ability for items that were not physically present. When I moved onto Around New York I also looked through Betas and DATs. In addition to updating the information in their online application, Cavafy, I would assist in the creation and application of barcodes for tracking the audio materials in the system.

I would sit in on weekly meetings with the archives team to discuss the progress of the digitization project. In addition, on that same day I would sit in on their weekly vendor meeting with their digitization vendor and listen. Occasionally we would digitize something in house due to a possible issue found with the tape or lack of information, but in general we were preparing these items to ship out. I also sat in on some of the audio quality control sessions. I learned a lot about metadata, organization, audio formats, and vendor relations.