Tops of historic audio cylinders.
UCSB Library Launches Early Recordings Initiative in Effort to Preserve Last Remaining pre-1903 Sound Recordings In a race against time, the elements, and eBay, the UC Santa Barbara Library, in collaboration with L.A.-based collector John Levin, has created the Early Recordings Initiative—the first...
Rudy Vallee holding a saxophone.
UCSB Library is one of 20 organizations that received a 2022 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in April for a Recordings at Risk project.  Nearly $50,000 is now available for the project, “Preserving America’s Radio Heritage: The Recordings of Variety Show Pioneer...
Arthur Rubinstein conducting
Wed, Mar 30, 4:43 pm | Special Research Collections
Arthur Benjamin Rubinstein was an Emmy Award-winning composer and conductor with over 40 years of experience creating scores for film, theater, and concert performances. To preserve his extensive legacy of musical creativity after his passing in 2018, his daughter Ali Rubinstein and wife Barbara...
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation logo
Tue, Mar 1, 1:42 pm | Special Research Collections, Grants
The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation announced last week that UCSB Library won one of two of its Preservation Grants to preserve and make more accessible documents and materials related to the life and career of Astor Piazzolla, a popular Argentine composer of tango and Latin American music. The...
Edison disc record: "The Jelly Roll blues", performed by The Original Memphis Five, recorded in New York, New York on September 22, 1923.
Mon, Feb 28, 11:46 am | Special Research Collections, Collections
Thomas Edison National Historical Park (TENHP) released 2,400 historic Edison disc sound recordings, digitized and made available online in cooperation with the University of California, Santa Barbara Library Special Research Collections on the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR)...
Wed, Dec 22, 10:31 am | Special Research Collections
On January 1, 2022, an estimated 400,000 sound recordings published before 1923 will enter the public domain thanks to a law passed in 2018. This is significant because, until 2022, no sound recording has entered the public domain due to copyright expiration.  The UC Santa Barbara Library has...
John Levin examines a wax cylinder from his home collection.
Around the world, there exist repositories of writings, imagery, and tools that mark the evolution of humankind, but what are the sounds of our shared history? For the last 35 years, collector John Levin has been amassing a collection of brown wax cylinders--one of our earliest media for recorded...
Wayne Shoaf and Melinda Hayes
Count Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and vampire pop culture may not seem like obvious areas for scholarly research. However, couple Melinda Hayes, University of Southern California (USC) Rare Books Librarian, and Wayne Shoaf, USC Metadata and Digital Librarian recognized this undervalued collecting...
Mary Garden in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélsande
About 2,000 rare early opera recordings, including cylinders and 78 RPMs valued at $300,000, were recently donated to the UCSB Library Special Research Collections Performing Arts Collection to be digitized and made available to the public.  The collection was donated by Catherine Glaze, who...
Eden Ahbez at Health Hut
Each year, the Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship program invites scholars from around the world to apply for a unique one to three months opportunity to pursue research, using primary source materials only available at UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections.  Collections available...

Pages