top of page

Overview:

 

The personal archives of Barbara Newman, a dance reporter and critic, consists of hundreds of audiocassettes of interviews with dancers and choreographers taken over the course of her career. Originally undertaken as a graduate school assignment, this project entailed the processing and digitizing of some of the aforementioned cassettes and the updating of a website designed specifically for the project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Challenge:

  • Newman's archives consisted of hundreds of cassette tapes, all of which were in the process of degrading

  • No inventory of the collection

  • Aside from Newman's corresponding books, there was no way to share the information on the tapes with the public at large

Methodology:

  • Cassette digitization, using an Alesis tape player in conjunction with Audacity. and saved in .wav format at 24-bit/96.kHz and later converted to mp3s

  • Traditional research into interviewees 

  • User interviews

Findings:

  • Users want to know about the careers of the interviewees, but do not want to spend more than 5 minutes on reading

  • Users want to hear excerpts rather than full interviews

Deliverables:

bottom of page