Help with Multimedia

See also Help with Searching

Playing Audio and Video Files

The sound recordings presented as part of "The Performing Arts Encyclopedia" are selected from the collections of the Library of Congress and in no way represent the entirety of recordings held by the Library.

Audio and video files do require special software (players) that are freely available over the Internet:

MP3		RealAudio
	Audio and video files in the MPEG 2, Layer 3 (MP3) format offer high quality sound at a greatly reduced file size. Many popular audio players that come with your computer can play MP3 files (like WinAmp or Windows Media Player).		Sound recordings and vidoes presented in the RealMedia format deliver sound faster, with a minimum of download time. To use RealMedia, you should have a 56Kbps (kilobits per second) or faster Internet connection for your computer.
For Download: a large collection of free MP3 players can be found at MPEG.org. Select a player appropriate for your operating system and following the onscreen instructions to download and install.		For Download: the most current version of the RealMedia player is available from www.real.com. Look for the link to "Free RealOne Player" (upper right corner of the home page). On the following screen, select the link to "Download the Free RealOne Player" (lower right corner of the page).

Using Finale Music Notation Files

When available, we provide Finale music notation files for musical scores which are part of the Performing Arts Encyclopedia Web site. To take full advantage of these files, you will either need to use them in the Finale software program, or the freely available Finale Notepad (see download instructions below).

For Download: The free Finale Notepad software is available from www.finalemusic.com. Download the files appropriate for your Operating System, and follow the onscreen instructions.