ONLINE AUDIO RESERVES
The Online Audio Reserves project was created to allow students to remotely
access audio materials placed on reserve in the library. The process by which
a CD, cassette or LP can be converted into a streaming media file is a simple
one:
- First, the audio material is processed by a desktop PC and converted to the Microsoft Windows Audio format (.WAV). This is done using either Syntrillium CoolEditPro for LPs and cassettes, or Poikosoft Easy CD/DA Extractor for CDs.
- The .WAV files are then processed by the Terran Interactive Cleaner5 program, which converts them into RealAudio files (.RM) to be streamed over the Internet.
- The .RM files are uploaded to a secure Audio/Visual Media Server administered by OIT.
- An entry for each file is placed in a Microsoft Access database which assigns a dynamic link to the OIT server.
- The files are grouped together by class and are protected by a login and password.
- The students then logon to the Audio Reserves website and listen to the streaming files.
This was begun as a pilot project in fall of 2000, with support for 3 courses per semester. It has now grown to include classes outside of the Music Department, such as English, Religion, African-American Studies, German, French, and a variety of Freshman Seminars and Writing Workshops. The project is a collaboration between the Music Library staff, the Library computer support staff, OIT and ETC. The group continues to meet to discuss issues of: current technology, intellectual property, interaction with Blackboard, and long term planning.
The on-line reserves are available by following the "Audio Reserves" link from the Music Library website (http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/music/index.php).
A support staff member supervises students who work on mounting these files throughout the semester. It has proven to be an extremely popular service for students and faculty, especially those in large lecture classes who would have had to wait for long periods of time in order to listen to audio reserves in the Music Library, which has only 14 listening stations. Listening to the reserves requires RealPlayer (which is freeware), making it available to students in their rooms, faculty in their offices, and at various OIT clusters and Music Library workstations.
On-line audio reserves have become common in music libraries, and a survey of similar projects in their institutional context was published in the March 2003 issue of Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association.
Mendel Music Library
Dan Gallagher
<dpg@princeton.edu>
