2008 GRAMMY Foundation Archiving & Preservation Grant Program Application New York University 1. New York University requests $40,000 from the Grammy Foundation Archiving & Preservation Grant Program to digitally preserve approximately 180 hours of field recordings and interviews taped by the Irish musician, ethnomusicologist and folklorist Mick Moloney. They are part of a collection of 811 hours of taped performance of Irish American music, as well as oral histories and interviews, made by Dr. Moloney between 1961 and 2005, when they were acquired by NYU for its Archives of Irish America. 2. This phase of preserving the Moloney collection will concentrate on approximately 180 reel- to-reel and cassette tapes that were made at public performances and sessions and in musicians’ homes between the late 1980s and early 1990s. Moloney made many of the cassette recordings on his Sony TCD 5 (the state of the art cassette recorder at that time) in situations in which a large, conspicuous tape recorder would have been inappropriate. Because of the variability of quality in the cassette housing structures, these recordings are now very much at risk; several have already become detached and urgently need remedial care. These recordings feature many older musicians of that time such as Andy McGann, Eugene O'Donnell, Tom Doherty, Johnny McGreevy and Al Purcell. Other tapes capture in their most formative years young emerging artists such as Liz Carroll, Joanie Madden, Brian Conway, Billy McComiskey, Brendan Mulvihill, Seamus Egan and Eileen Ivers, many of whom are internationally known today. Many other recordings track the evolution of the groundbreaking, National Endowment for the Arts-funded ensemble, The Green Fields of America, which introduced Irish traditional music and dance to a general audience nationwide; until that time, they had been largely unknown outside the Irish American community. New York University Other recordings in this group document the emergence in the 1980s of Irish American women as major artists in a hitherto male-dominated music scene. They include the earliest performances of the first all-women's Irish music and dance group, Cherish the Ladies, now in its 20th year of performing around the world. This phase also includes rare, informal, early interviews with such luminaries as tenor Frank Patterson, famed balladeers Tommy Makem and Paddy Clancy, and the indomitable Carmel Quinn, who for many years performed on national radio and television shows hosted by Arthur Godfrey. With the death in August 2007 of Tommy Makem, Carmel Quinn is the only one of these four very influential performers still alive. Finally, many of these recordings feature performance and oral histories of grassroots artists whose music and songs were rarely heard outside their own local communities, but whose work helped shape the tradition of Irish music in America. Without preservation, this unique documentation of the Irish American musical subculture and folk tradition will be lost. With support from the GRAMMY Foundation, NYU is currently preserving 170 hours of Moloney recordings as the first phase of this project. The tapes described above are the most at-risk tapes of those remaining to be preserved; in most cases, they are in a comparable condition. They have not been stored according to archival standards, and a condition survey reveals evidence of substrate deformation, potential sticky shed syndrome, dust and mold. Reformatting is urgently required. 3. NYU purchased the Mick Moloney collection from Dr. Moloney and is the sole owner. NYU bought the collection to augment its important research collections in Irish American culture and music and has no intention of selling the Moloney materials or transferring ownership. October 1, 2007 2 New York University 4. In selling his archive to NYU, Mick Moloney conveyed all his right title and interest to NYU as well. The oral histories were made with permission but signed release forms were not requested. NYU is working to secure their signed release forms. Searches continue for subjects no longer in contact with Professor Moloney, and for estate information for those who have died. 5. NYU’s audio digitization standards are informed by IASA TC-04 Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Objects and IASA TC-0 3The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy (Version 3). Each ¼” and cassette recording will be digitized by audio lab SPECS Bros. The bitstream shall be encoded as a Broadcast Wave Format file (BWF) and will be uncompressed, pulse code modulated (PCM) generated at a 96k/24bit resolution. No signal processing shall be applied to either the bitstream or to the BWF file; this would include level adjustment, dither or noise shaping, equalization or noise reduction. A checksum shall be generated for each file using the MD5 algorithm. SPECS Bros. also will produce an access copy of each recording on gold CD-Rs. SPECS Bros. will complete a METS-compatible metadata spreadsheet to document their work on the archival originals, preservation masters, and access copies. WAV files will be transferred between SPECS Bros. and NYU on hard drives. After quality control is completed, WAV files will be ingested into NYU Libraries’ digital repository for long-term storage. The NYU Digital Library uses RAID disks, and all data is backed up onto IBM 3592 (Enterprise Class) tape media. Copies are sent off-site to Iron Mountain on a monthly basis. 6. Prior to shipment to SPECS Bros. for digitization, all sound recordings will be rehoused in inert polypropylene cases in preparation for long-term storage. Once preserved, all originals will be safeguarded in climate-controlled storage facilities in the Media Vault of the NYU Libraries Department of Preservation and Conservation. October 1, 2007 3 New York University 7. Preservation masters on WAV will be stored in NYU’s digital repository with appropriate METS-compatible metadata. Access copies will be made available at NYU’s Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media. 8. As NYU preserves and digitizes the Mick Moloney music collection, it will be widely used and studied by scholars already familiar with NYU’s strength in Irish Studies, American immigration history and related fields. Dr. Moloney is extremely well known in his field, having obtained his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and taught there as well as at Georgetown University and Villanova University before coming to NYU. He has lectured, performed and produced concerts around the world. NYU has publicized its acquisition of his collection, helping to ensure that scholars beyond NYU (where the collection is very well known) are aware of its new home in the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, NYU’s flagship library. Bobst Library is the home of both the Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media, one of the largest academic media centers in the country, and the Archives of Irish America, a widely known resource of primary research materials relating to the Irish migration experience and the distillation of American Irish ethnicity over the past century. Material from the Moloney Collection will be divided between these two publicly accessible facilities. 8. The Mick Moloney collections will be available to the public six days per week. Kent Underwood, head of the Avery Fisher Center, and Marion Casey, head of the Archives of Irish America, will provide reference assistance to users. Kent Underwood will head the processing team that will catalog the recorded music collection. Glucksman Ireland House, NYU’s center for Irish and Irish-American Studies, will use the Moloney collection in its wide variety of public events, which attracts audiences from New York City and beyond. The inventory to the Mick Moloney archive will be encoded and made available on the Libraries website. A long-term goal of NYU is to October 1, 2007 4 New York University make available on the worldwide web the field recordings and oral history interviews to which it has obtained the required rights and permissions. 9. Key people involved in the project (all from NYU): • Michael Stoller, Ph.D., Director, Collections & Research Services, Division of Libraries • Kent Underwood, Ph.D., Head, Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media • Michael Moloney, Ph. D., Global Distinguished Professor of Irish Studies and Music, Faculty of Arts and Science • Paula De Stefano, M.S., Head, Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department and Barbara Goldsmith Curator for Preservation, Division of Libraries • Sarah Ziebell, M.L.I.S., Moving Image Preservation Specialist, NYU Division of Libraries and Adjunct Professor, Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, Tisch School of the Arts • Marion Casey, Ph.D., Glucksman Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in Irish Studies and Head, Archives of Irish America October 1, 2007 5 .