In April 2020 we learned that Vassar College had won the Recordings at Risk grant. This project was one of only 19 selected from a total of 43 applications. Few liberal arts institutions are numbered among the list of grant recipients, so our winning is even more significant.

Due to Covid-19, the processes of obtaining packing materials and carefully packing and mailing of the physical objects progressed at a glacial speed.  However as of December 2020 all recordings are safely at vendors awaiting digitization! 

May 2021: Files for the recordings sent to the first of our two digitization vendors, George Blood Audio Visual (GBAV), were received and QC accomplished.  As of May all questions were answered and errors were rectified.

June 2021: Interim report to CLIR written.

Cataloging: of the original recordings and digitized by GBAV progressed according to national standards.

Scanning: of related materials progressed through the 2021/22 .

January 21, 2022. Files for the recordings sent to the second of our two digitization vendors, Northeast Documentation Center (NEDCC) were received and we began QC.  

Scanning: of related materials was completed in May 2022.

Meetings with the College Lawyer, and members of the Vassar Grants Office, the Dickinson Music Library and the Digital Scholarship and Technology Services Department Team, Vassar Libraries, began in December 2021 and continued into Winter 2022.  They were held  to discuss the process of resercher-access to this material, including researcher request vehicles and language for the collection on the Digital Libraries' platform.

Cataloging of the original recordings progressed according to national standards and has nearly been completed for the original recordings sent to both vendors.  These cataloging records will be harvested to form the basis of the metadata in the Digital Libraries where the digitized surrogates and the scans of related  materials will reside. 

May 2022: wording was drafted for the research request form for access to materials covered in the Recordings at Risk grant.  The draft will be sent to the college lawyer for review.

May 2022-May 2023:  wording finalized, metadata crosswalk created and all materials assenbled in the Digital Libraries; request process put in place, announcements made.  Collection name changed from Vassar College Archival Recordings Collection to Vassar College Archives Audio Collection to avoid confusion with other existing collections.

May 2023:  Project completed!