Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) records
Collection
0193-MMC
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), founded in 1966, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and studying sound recordings; in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC membership is comprised of both private individuals and institutional collectors. The Association for Recorded Sound Collections archive contains materials relating to this organization from 1962 through the present, with the bulk of material coming from 1966-2003.
The collection consists of personal and professional papers, including published and unpublished writings, correspondence, reports, and materials relating to membership, the annual conference, publications, the society's structure, and initiatives with affiliated organizations. The collection includes recordings of yearly conferences, related lectures and programs, and board meetings.
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. This collection contains restricted material. Please check the series and folder listings for additional information.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
142.68 Linear Feet
English
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections archive contains materials relating to this organization from 1962 through the present, with the bulk of material coming from 1966-2003. The collection consists of personal and professional papers, including published and unpublished writings, correspondence, reports, as well as materials relating to membership, the annual conference, publications, the society's structure, and initiatives with affiliated organizations. The collection represents the involvement of the officers and committees, as well as various regional ARSC chapters. The collection includes recordings of annual conferences, related lectures and programs, and board meetings.
Founded in 1966, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings; in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC membership is comprised of both private individuals and institutional collectors. Current membership consists of approximately one thousand archivists, librarians, and curators representing many of the world's leading audiovisual repositories participate in ARSC alongside record collectors, record dealers, researchers, historians, discographers, musicians, engineers, producers, reviewers, and broadcasters. ARSC hosts an Annual Conference bringing together collectors from a variety of backgrounds. Since 1968, ARSC has published a peer-reviewed journal and the ARSC Newsletter delivers timely announcements, short articles, and a calendar of coming events.
This collection is organized into eight series.
This collection contains audiovisual materials. Items that cannot be used in the Special Collections reading room or are too fragile for researchers require that a digital copy be made prior to use. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit.
This collection contains born-digital materials. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit as items may require specialized software for access.
The bulk of the collection was transferred to Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) in 2000, with regular accessions through 2014. In December 2014, the collection was transferred from SCPA to Special Collections and University Archives. Additional accruals were donated to the collection from 2017-2022.
This collection was initially processed between 2010-2014 while the collection was at Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) in 2000. In April 2025, the collection was further processed to intergrate the new accruals that were donated between 2017-2022.
Documents were placed in new acid-free folders as needed and placed in archival boxes. Born-digital materails were separated from the collection and given to the Digital Archivist to processes. The recording materials are currently unproccessed.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives