About 14,000 public and private institutions hold sound
recordings, according to one survey. The plan carries 32
recommendations as a blueprint to coordinate their efforts and
enlist commercial recording studios and private copyright
holders in preservation efforts. Congress called for a plan in a
2000 law on preserving audio recordings. The Library of Congress
already saves some key historic recordings each year, but
researchers say many others are being lost due to a lack of
storage capacity, changing technology, inadequate funding and
disparate copyright laws. "As a nation, we have good reason to
be proud of our record of creativity in the sound-recording arts
and sciences," said Librarian of Congress James Billington in
announcing the effort. "However, our collective energy in
creating and consuming sound recordings has not been matched by
an equal level of interest in preserving them for posterity."
Researchers say more than half of the oldest recordings have
already been lost including some by Gershwin,