It is desirable that all sound archives, which make up the national collection, should publish their selection policies:

1. to allow discussion of relative role to proceed from a clearly defined base so that we can co-ordinate with other sound archives either in a hierarchy of dependence or division of responsibility between equals;
2. to allow rationalisation of resources by deciding priorities and preventing duplication;
3. a good service cannot be provided within the oral history field by simply reacting to public demand as there must be a positive endeavour to build collections which will anticipate needs and give an orderly expression of priorities over a period of time;
4. to facilitate understanding of the operation of the sound archives selection policy.
   1. Users can see the principles used and thus better judge the areas covered by the collection. Donors can also make a pre-judgment of whether their material will be selected for archival preservation.
   2. Staff can work to clearly defined rules guaranteeing stability and consistency untroubled by staff changes.
5. Evaluation of performance is facilitated.

The purpose of the Imperial War Museum is to collect, preserve and display material and information bearing upon the two World Wars and other military operations since 1914 in which Great Britain or other members of the Commonwealth have been involved. Other museums, both national and provincial exist, but the Imperial War Museum, alone in the country, is solely concerned with all aspects of war, military and civil, allied and enemy in this, the age of the two greatest wars in history.

This statement is the most concise statement of purpose which the Museum possesses. The Department of sound Records has no separate brief other than its responsibility as a national sound archive.

However, further amplification of the particular responsibilities of the Department of Sound Records can be gleaned from study of the original intentions of the General Committee appointed by the War Cabinet to consider a scheme for a National War Museum in 1915 which reported to the Cabinet in 1917. Documents issued by the Committee bearing the names of Sir Martin Conday the first Director General and Sir Alfred Monk the Chairmen state the following:

“The Imperial War Museum should have a more intimate personal interest for the individual than any museum that has ever been contemplated, for it is proposed to show not only the work of the fighting forces, but also the manner in which the whole Empire responded to the call in munitions work, women’s substitution, and work in the land, in fact it is proposed to record the whole life of the Empire as changed and revolutionised by the war.

The individual will find the work of himself and his family exhibited for all time.

Much that would have been of great value to the National Collection is already, destroyed, more is in imminent peril of destruction. A general co-operation is needed to preserve everything that can be saved.”

Consideration of the points raised in these statements lead to the conclusions that:

The Sound Records Department must collect, preserve and display all recordings and transcripts (when available) bearing upon the two world wars and other military operations since 1914 in which Great Britain or other members of the Commonwealth have been involved.

The department has a particular responsibility to preserve the individual viewpoint of the events, which form the brief of the Museum. The recording medium is particularly effective in preserving this viewpoint both accurately and evocatively.

The department has a particular responsibility to record those elements of the Museum’s brief which by their nature are less fully documented but which are of equal importance in understanding how the whole life of the country was changed and revolutionised by war.

The department has a responsibility to preserve everything that can be saved.

Although the brief quite clearly indicates that there should be a universal selection policy there are restrictive problems.

Lack of space. Although technology promises to minimise this problem with digital recordings there is no commitment for re-equipment with this expensive equipment. The existing collection would have to be re-recorded in any event.

Lack of oral history interviewers. The recording programme of acquisitions is restricted by the low number of staff and freelance oral history interviewers. This forces a careful choice as to who can be interviewed and on what subjects.

Lack of staff and equipment for preservation work. The archival copying and preservation is extremely time consuming and staff are also required for monitoring air-conditioning and checking the stability of recordings in storage.

Lack of staff for cataloguing. Sound recordings are not readily accessible without clear effective cataloguing. This is extremely costly in staff time due to the requirement to prepare synopses of tape content.

Lack of resources. Although the previous three points are consequent upon this, the general point can be made that the archival preservation of recordings involves a commitment to prepare copies of the material and there is a limited budget for tape purchase.

To ensure a balanced collection. If we simply respond to the material offered to us the collection may easily become unbalanced and not reflective of the institution’s brief.

The following table represents in summary form the current state of the collection. The grades are designed to facilitate judgements on the scope of the collection in a particular subject field and are as follows:

OHP – Oral History Project

The implications of the negative factors which prevent the adoption of a universal selection policy means that the department should examine how to construct a list of subject priorities and then apply them to the construction of such a list, based on the current state of the collection as detailed in the previous section.

Identification of Subject Priorities

1. Relevance of subject to Museum’s brief.
2. Demand for material relating to subject.
3. Success of collection as currently stated to meet that demand both now and in the future.
4. Number of people involved in the events which taken together form the subject matter. This is of relevance if the number is large and thus represents a subject, which we should make efforts to collect, as it is a common central experience. It can also be of relevance if the number is small and the subject represents a rare but significant experience.
5. Number of people involved in the events which together form the subject matter who are still available to relate their experience and the length of time for which they will continue to be available. This is of relevance as it can raise the priority of a topic if the source of recollections is about to disappear for any reason.

Suggested Priorities

1. 1914-1918 The First World War
   Gallipoli; Mesopotamia; Italy; Palestine; East Africa; Ireland; Salonika
   Western Front Operations 1914-15
   Naval Campaigns: Coronel & Falklands; Hunt for Raiders, convoy & Anti-Submarine; Dover Patrol; Zeebrugge Raid
   Male work on home front: farming; mines; heavy armaments
    
2. 1919-1939 Inter War
   Attacks on USSR 1919-21
   Spanish Civil War and particularly Fascist side
   Ireland
   Royal Navy (excepting Invergordon)
   Rise of fascism in Britain
    
3. 1939-1945 Second World War
   Home Front – Industry; Farming; Women’s role; Home Guard; Political Warfare; Politicians; Press & Media; Espionage; Battle of Britain; Blitz
   Overseas - all major campaigns especially those involving limited numbers. Special attention must be taken to avoid minimizing the attention given to the RN and RAF.
    
4. 1945-1983 Post War
   Korea
   Colonial Warfare: African campaigns; Aden; Cyprus; Falklands; Vietnam (Australian); India Independence; Ireland
    
5. 1900-1983
   Political: Recordings related to France; pre 1938 USA/; Japan; Rise of fascism in UK in 1930s and 80s; post 1945 situation.
   Technical: Weapon development and construction
   Sound Effects: pre 1939 and post 1945.

The existence of subject priorities thus identified does not alter the fact that all new acquisitions should be examined with the guide of selection criteria, which include not only an expansion of subject considerations but also others of equal relevance to a sound archive. The starting point of such selection criteria would be the following general statement: a recording warrants preservation if there is any reason that the loss of the recording would be regretted in the future by researchers into those fields of study covered be the Imperial War Museum. The points below should be considered a checklist of criteria in selection:

Relationship of subject matter to collection

• Relevance of topic to Imperial War Museum’s brief. Is it correctly defined within our terms of reference or would it be better deposited at a more relevant institution. Is there an existing demand for the topic from the public and what is the nature of that demand.
• Is the topic of lasting importance or is interest of a temporary nature. Will there be a future demand for the topic. Is the topic already covered by the collection to such a degree that all future demands made in that area can be satisfied. Is the topic in a designated priority area as in (5).

Relevance of sound medium

• Would the subject matter be better or more securely preserved in another medium.

Rarity of Recording

• How rare is the recording or the information contained within it. Could it be easily duplicated or reacquired at a later date or would there be a risk of permanent loss.

Secondary characteristics of the recording

• Are the personalities heard on the recording of interest in their own right and are there available recordings of their voices of a comparative origin and background. Are social attitudes revealed in the recording, which may be of more interest than the original subject matter. What is the reputation of the author/producer of the recordings and are the recordings central as a primary source to some publication of permanent interest.

Role as a national archive

• Is the material although outside the brief within the Imperial War Museum worthy of archival preservation until a permanent home can be found.

Minimum technical standards

• Does the recording conform to the minimum technical standards laid down by the Imperial War Museum sound technician. (See Appendix A)

Limitations on use

• Does copyright provision place unacceptable restrictions on the use of the material.

Selection procedures

• Members of staff shall make every effort to secure collections of relevance to identified subject priorities.
• When a collection is offered to the Museum a report should be prepared by the member of staff concerned reflecting an analysis of the collection using our selection criteria.
• This report should be discussed with senior archive staff and a decision taken on whether to acquire the collection; recommend it for preservation elsewhere; or reject the collection outright. The decision should be unanimous for the third option to be taken or selection staff should almost inevitably be in breach of the general selection statement.

Archive Material Selection-Technical Considerations

Although there is no difficulty in stating preferred minimum technical specifications for recording quality regarding the usual parameters of frequency response, signal to noise ratio, wow and flutter and distortion, there is considerable difficulty in measuring them on a suspect piece of material. This is because to make such measurements it is necessary to have test tones on the tape, recorded by the machine on which the recording proper has been made. By definition a doubtful recording will not have this. Therefore a decision concerning technical suitability will usually be made on a subjective basis.

The basic requirement of any recording is that it be intelligible to a person with average hearing ability. There are a number of techniques available to enhance the performance of a “borderline” case to bring it closer to an acceptable performance. By using conventional “mid” tone controls or a graphic or parametric equaliser, it is possible to accentuate the 1 to 3 KHz frequency range to which the ear is most sensitive. Tape hiss can have its annoyance value reduced by careful setting of a gentle treble “roll-off” using a graphic equaliser. This, or a parametric or notch filter can also be used to reduce hum and associated harmonic frequencies provided they are not too wideband (it can be difficult to filter out large amplitude harmonics that extend across the whole audio band). Unwanted low-frequency rumble can be reduced by using a high-pass filter with either a 6dB or 12dB per octave slope with a switchable range of say 50 to 160Hz - most modern mixing desks incorporate this feature.

It should also be borne in mind that improvements in signal processing techniques are almost inevitable in years to come. For this reason it is probably advisable to either copy poor material “flat”, noting details of necessary filtering to be carried out on any subsequent copies, or for the minimum of filtering to be used for acceptable results on a master tape¹.

1. Note (added in 2010): modern practice is not to “improve” the original recording when copying for archival purposes but only when making access copies.