Overview[]
The National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) was established at the Library of Congress in 2002 as a result of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000.
Among the provisions of the law was a directive to the Board to study and report on the state of sound recording preservation in the United States. That report, The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age, was published in August 2010.
The Plan was devised to provide a blueprint to "implement a comprehensive national sound recording preservation program," as mandated in the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. Congress specified that the program established by the Librarian of Congress under this legislation "shall . . . increase accessibility of sound recordings for educational purposes."
Preserved recordings can benefit the public only if they are made available for listening. Technological, institutional, and legal impediments to broadened access create daunting challenges for the national preservation effort. This plan identifies the audio field's most important preservation and access problems and offers recommendations for surmounting them.