The Sound Collections Database (SCD) is a national directory of archival sound collections, originally developed by the Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF) of the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), in partnership with the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC).

This latest iteration of the SCD represents a new chapter in the project’s development. Rebuilt as a static website using GitHub Pages and guided by minimal computing principles, the current version is maintained and developed by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland. The new platform emphasizes transparency, sustainability, and long-term stewardship of metadata describing historically significant and at-risk audio collections. This work was generously supported by a gift from the National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF).

The SCD remains a collaborative, evolving resource. We continue to seek out collections for inclusion and welcome contributions from institutions, scholars, and the public. To submit a collection to the database, use this submission form. The top of the form also contains instructions to enter a number of collections in bulk.

Project Leadership and Acknowledgments

This SCD site and data are currently overseen by Stephanie Sapienza (Digital Humanities Archivist) and Raffaele Viglianti (Senior Research Software Developer). The SCD Advisory Group includes Patrick Midtlyng, Brandon Burke, Yuri Shimoda, A.J. Bauer, and William Van Den Dries, who contributed their expertise to revisions and upgrades of the data model and collection submission workflows. Josh Shepperd is the Director of the RPTF.

Previous versions of the database were developed using the open-source Blacklight framework, as part of a massive flagship RPTF initiative. We acknowledge the foundational work of the previous developers and contributors, whose efforts made this resource possible:

• Maria Matienzo
• William Van Den Dries
• Amanda Keeler
• Neil Verma
• Emily Goodmann
• Dylan Flesch
• Megan Kane
• Julia Peres Guimaraes

Project Background

For more background on the development of the database project, read E. Goodmann, M. A. Matienzo, S. VanCour and W. V. Dries, “Building the National Radio Recordings Database: A Big Data Approach to Documenting Audio Heritage.”

Using the Database

The Sound Collections Database includes multiple tools for discovering and exploring archival sound collections. You can use the main search bar to look for specific keywords, or explore the database using the filters ("facets") on the left-hand side of the page.

Facets allow you to filter results by criteria such as content type, subject, format, and geographic region. These facets are additive, meaning that selecting multiple terms will expand your results to include collections that match any of the selected criteria, not just those that match all of them. For example, if you select both "Radio Broadcasts" and "Oral Histories" under Content Type, you will see collections that include either one or the other (or both), rather than only those that contain both.

We are actively working to update and standardize entries across the database, but please note that some records may still contain outdated information or broken links. If you encounter any issues or have corrections to suggest, please email sapienza@umd.edu with a brief description of the collection and the changes needed. We appreciate your help in keeping the database accurate and useful for all users.