Biography

Sarah Cunningham is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Graduate School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. She has
taught an Introductory and an Advanced class in Audio Preservation since 2003.

Sarah Cunningham’s work revolves around digitization projects, the preservation and transfer of vintage audiotapes, system upgrades, and the storage of information and digital delivery of audiovisual recordings in archival collections. She is the Audiovisual Archivist at the LBJ Presidential Library branch of the National Archives and now serves on the National Recording Preservation Board representing the National Archives.

My areas of expertise are the preservation of archival analog media and digital solutions for the preservation of audio recordings on unstable media. Interests include forensics for digital audio recordings, media archeology and the tools needed to keep digitized recordings connected to their analog existence.

Presentations:


"Sound History at the Library of Congress and the National Recording
Preservation Board" April 1, 2022, at the Organization of American Historians
meeting. Boston, Mass.

"Preserving the recordings of the United States Presidents in the National
Archives". at the 50th Annual Conference of the International Association of
Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) at the Netherlands Institute for Sound
and Vision, in Hilversum, Netherlands. October 2019.

“Processing Audio Collections: Getting into Gear for Researchers”- at the
Society of American Archivists Annual Conference. New Orleans 2013.

“Preserving the November 1963 recordings of Lady Bird Johnson's Audio
Diary: A study in deteriorating media, dying batteries and patience – for
the CCAHA 2009.

“Audio Preservation Courses at the School of Information at The University
of Texas at Austin” for the Texas Music Library Association 2008
Conference.

“Managing the Intangible: Creating, Storing and Retrieving Digital
Surrogates of Historical Materials” National Archives 21st Preservation
Conference May 1, 2007.

The Preservation of Analog Oral History Collections through Digitization,
in
Oral History in the Digital Age, edited by Doug Boyd, Steve Cohen, Brad
Rakerd, and Dean Rehberger. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Museum and Library
Services, 2012.

Degrees

B.A. in Anthropology, 1978, The University of Texas at Austin;
M.S. in Information Studies, 2003, The University of Texas at Austin; Certificate in Preservation Administration in Libraries and Archives, The University of Texas at Austin