The Save Our Sounds Project

Save Our Sounds is the archival preservation effort of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Save Our Sounds was initiated with support from Save America's Treasures, a public-private partnership to preserve America's cultural heritage. From 2000-2004, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress collaborated under the Save Our Sounds project to preserve thousands of endangered sound recordings and related materials. The special project funds have run out, but the need continues: included in our collections are hundreds of thousands of recordings from every state in the nation and from around the world, including music,songs, poems, and speeches that have inspired artists, leaders, and communities over the generations. These original recordings are on old wax cylinders, decaying wire, decomposing acetate, and deteriorating audio tape. If we are to save these original sounds, we must preserve these audio recordings now — and we need your help to do so, as a sponsor, volunteer or intern.

Volunteering or interning with Save Our Sounds at the Smithsonian
We can put you to work assisting with our work of preserving, digitizing, and cataloguing sound recordings in the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. The work will be especially interesting for those wanting to learn more about American musical traditions and our heritage of recorded sound. Skills you might bring to the tasks would include a knowledge of or interest in American folk music, audio engineering, computers, or library and archival work. Students in Folklore, American Studies, American History, Music, or other fields may be able to arrange course credit for their work here. Interns typically are here daily for periods of at least four weeks; volunteers may arrange to work one or more days per week, for an extended period.