{"id":26362,"date":"2014-04-14T12:48:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T19:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/?p=26362"},"modified":"2014-04-16T16:08:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T23:08:56","slug":"saving-college-radio-symposium-highlights-importance-archiving-radio-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/2014\/04\/saving-college-radio-symposium-highlights-importance-archiving-radio-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving College Radio Symposium Highlights Importance of Archiving Radio History"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday I spent an amazing day at University of Maryland, College Park for the Saving College Radio Symposium<\/a>. Hosted by the University of Maryland Libraries’ Special Collections, the symposium was held in conjunction with the exhibit Saving College Radio: WMUC – Past, Present and Future<\/a>. Throughout the day, archivists, scholars, and college radio participants talked about the culture of college radio and methods for preserving its legacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I opened up the event, doing a keynote presentation titled “Changes in the Air: Reflections on the Ongoing Relevance of College Radio Culture.” I outlined the history of college radio in the United States and also made the point that college radio is ever-changing, with many stations going through periods of instability and periods of renaissance. Other presenters shared case studies of specific stations and archivists and digital librarians for University of Maryland spoke about the process of obtaining and archiving materials related to college radio station WMUC<\/a>. At lunch, we also got the opportunity to tour through the university’s Digital Conversion and Reformatting Center<\/a>, where archivists painstakingly transfer old media (carts, tapes, reel-to-reel, etc.) and paper artifacts to digital files.<\/p>\n

\"Equipment<\/a>

University of Maryland’s Digital Conversion and Reformatting Center<\/p><\/div>\n

In wrapping up the day, event organizer (and exhibit curator) Laura Schnitker said that she hoped that this symposium was a first step towards establishing a space in academics for “this dialogue” about college radio history. Additionally, she offered words of encouragement to college radio stations, arguing that we can all take a few steps in order to preserve station history, including:<\/p>\n