Administrative Information
Acquisition
The American Dialect Society Collection (also referred to as the ADS Collection), includes disc recordings, typed transcriptions, and other documentation related to research for the Linguistic Atlas of New England, was donated to the Library of Congress on December 28, 1984, by the American Dialect Society. The collection originally included a number of duplicate discs, which were subsequently given to the Linguistic Archives at the University of Georgia, Athens. In cases where the original discs were missing from those donated to the Library, duplicated copies of those discs have been retained. In 1989 a tape comprising copies of some of the discs made by Frederic Cassidy, including seventeen recordings missing from the collection, were located among a separate collection of recordings loaned to the Library for duplication by the former president of the American Dialect Society, Raven I. McDavid. This tape has been added to the collection.
After the collection was donated to the Library in 1984, AFC reference librarian Gerald E. Parsons worked with linguists Katherine Langdon and Clare O'Leary to listen to each of the discs, provide a quality review, and prepare a database describing the content of each recording. In addition, the collection was arranged, described, and prepared for preservation duplication by Ross Gersten, Stephanie A. Hall, Francesca McLean, and John Vallier. In 2003-2004, Marcia K. Segal directed digitization work on the sound recordings, and finalized the collection guide. On July 7, 2000, the Save America's Treasures program jointly awarded the American Folklife Center (Library of Congress) and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (Smithsonian Institution) a $750,000 grant to save sound recordings and related materials (in other formats) in danger of being lost through physical deterioration. This program funded the Save Our Sounds project. The American Folklife Center selected several of its own collections for inclusion in the Save Our Sounds Project, including the American Dialect Society Collection. The digitization process was not exhaustive, due to the small quantity of materials in the collection. Only the audio disc recordings were digitized, because it was determined that ADS Collection recordings on the 10-inch preservation tape, formerly believed to be unique in the collection, existed in disc form (and thus an earlier generation) in the collection.
Preferred Citation
American Dialect Society Collection (AFC 1984/011), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Access and Use
Access
Listening and viewing access to the collection is unrestricted. The American Folklife Center is the custodial division for this collection; the original sound recordings are stored in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (hereafter M/B/RS), Library of Congress. Reference copies of sound recordings are available in analog and digitized forms (WAV and mp3 formats) through the Folklife Reading Room. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for specific information.
An Access database contains entries for sound recordings and manuscripts that were digitized as part of the Save Our Sounds project. This database includes a short log for each recording, information on discs, interpolations of notes on disc sleeves, and background information on some of the recordings. This updated database is now available in the Folklife Reading Room.
Restrictions may apply concerning the use, duplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for specific information. To order audio reproductions, please refer to http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/folkrec.html.
A selection of audio recordings from the American Dialect Society Collection is incorporated into the American Memory online presentation, "Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories" at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfshtml/vfshome.html.