A Lot of Music for a Mere Pittance: the Sound Document Landscape in the Czech Republic

Příspěvek přibližuje situaci v oblasti zvukových dokumentů na národní úrovni. Poukazuje na nedostatek podpory ze strany státu, chybějící národní plán ochrany zvukových nosičů a z toho plynopucí problémy. Navzdory tomu se na tomto poli podařila řada úspěšných kroků, které jsou zde blíže popsány.This paper focuses on an area of audio preservation at the national level that has until recently been completely neglected. Our biggest challenge lies in the fact that we still do not have a Czech National Sound Archive, primarily because we lack systematic preservation policies for audio at a national level. Over the last two years much has been accomplished, but the direction has not been firmly established, and it does not yet have strong institutional support. While our goals have recently been captured in the State Cultural Policy, 2015-2020, the question of funding has not been resolved. In this presentation, we will discuss some of our recent, important activities. Our platform, which aims to fill a gap in understanding the national sound cultural heritage, is called the Virtual National Phonotheque (www.narodnifonoteka.cz). It informs users about the existence, location and content of all audio documents published or housed in the Czech Republic. It is very important that we also cover the history of the Czech sound industry, record labels and publishing. In addition, we are moving forward in many other directions related to the preservation of audio recordings. We want to highlight the gains we have made in our work so far, all without big projects or money from the Czech Republic