One of the Library's missions is to preserve audio-visual materials. Much of this work happens at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Virginia. Here's a quick look at the process of digitizing a 78 RPM disc, making it more accessible for Library patrons like you! pic.twitter.com/hhzBq6MDH7
— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) June 13, 2023
One of the missions of the Library of Congress of the United States is to digitize information sources to preserve them from loss and make them more broadly available. In this video, a professional conservationist takes a 78 RPM record from 1908 and prepares it for recording. He cleans the record, mounts it precisely on a turntable, and chooses the right stylus for this recording.
The song is "Don't Take Me Home" by Eddie Morton. It's a novelty song about a man who prefers incarceration to living with his shrewish wife.
Years later, I found myself at another station that actually had a wax/vinyl disc cutter in the equipment storage room. It was from the days when that was the only way to record ads, direct to wax. I'm sure anything recorded there was quite wavy and distorted.