Contact: Steve Zalusky


Manager of Communications, PIO


(312) 280-1546


szalusky@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


July 15, 2008

ALA
Council passes resolution on sound recordings

At the American Library Association (ALA) 2008 Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif., the ALA Council passed a resolution on sound recordings made prior to February 1972, emphasizing the need for their preservation and accessibility.

In the resolution, the Council urges Congress to charge the U.S. Copyright Office to study the desirability of bringing sound recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, under federal jurisdiction. Under current U.S. copyright law, all sound recordings issued in the United States prior to that date are prevented from entering the public domain until 2067. This places historical recordings at significant risk of loss by thwarting preservation programs because of the uncertainty over whether creating preservation copies would violate copyright law.

Unlike books, paintings, photographs and other creative works, sound recordings are technology dependent, so that if a pre-1972 sound recording is not reissued in a contemporary format (digital file or compact disc), the content is generally not accessible to the public or scholarly community.

The National Recording Preservation Board has shown that only 14 percent of recordings of historical value from the first 75 years of commercial sound recording (1890-1964) have been reissued by their owners.