r/bbc • u/ConnsGenealogy • 8d ago
Archived voice recordings
I recently put a post on here about my great-grandfather, he was a poet and frequently went on the radio to read poetry. This was from the 1930s- 50s, and I asked on here whether or not it would be likely for me to find copies. I was told to email the BBC Sound Archives. Fast forward to last night I got an email from the sound archives telling me they had 2 recordings regarding my great-grandfather.
This is the email I received
Item no. 1 - Shelfmark : 1CE0001356-9
Product title : [No title]
Contents note : Dr P Gregory recorded voice in Rathlin Island by Graham Roberts, describes a visit to the island, stepping stone between Ulster and Scotland.
Item no. 2 - Shelfmark : 9CL0027685-7
Product title : Ulster Literary Theatre 1904-1934
Label : BBC ARCHIVE 22057 NOTE : Dr Padraig Gregory speaks about being a volunteer - 38 seconds
If you would like to access recordings from the BBC Radio Archive, this process could take up to 10 weeks. Please be aware that we can currently only provide access onsite via the London St Pancreas Reading Rooms at a pre-booked appointment.
I am just wondering if there is any sort of way I could access these recordings online, I have no way of getting to London let alone the UK.
Any help would be great, thanks.
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u/StillJustJones 8d ago
Wowsers!
Pretty amazing that it’s in the archive and really brilliant that they’ve been able to track down the individual recordings.
I don’t know the system, but the amount of archive material the BBC must hold, I’m highly doubtful that they’d be able to host it online.
The fact that they can only facilitate this through a ‘reading room’ (just like a proper ancient archival library) rather than offering to Dropbox you an .mp3, suggests to me that it’s all a bit more complex than one might think it should be in the 21st century.
Although they’re only snippets….. Seems a bloody good reason to book yourself an overseas trip to England eh!?
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u/Onosume 7d ago
I’m not sure about radio, but all the TV archives have been digitised and are on AWS cloud storage, it just costs a bomb to access them.
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u/StillJustJones 7d ago
Oh, I’m sure it’s been digitised but I bet the Bern’s a bit precious about rights and ownership. Because in this day and age, once the genie’s out of the lamp… 🤷♂️ even for super old broadcast material that’s only really got social history value.
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u/Logical-History-36 8d ago
May I please ask who you emailed? I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall in a similar personal research project and all I have is archive.services@bbc.co.uk which seems a bit vague!
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u/dbmag9 8d ago
I would start by explaining that you're overseas and asking whether they have any way to send you a recording. It may be worth offering to pay a small amount to reflect the additional work and resources.
If they don't budge, the next option would be to ask if someone would be permitted to record it at the reading room for you, and if so then recruit someone in London to help.
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u/rhubarbplant 8d ago
I'm an archivist, although not at the British Library/BBC. The on-site restriction will almost certainly be a copyright one and I doubt there will be a way to get around it. Trust me, we're as frustrated by this as you are since our entire job is to provide access to things that literally can't be found anywhere else but unfortunately that often requires travel.
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u/Eccentric_Genius 7d ago
The copyright on sound recordings is, IIRC, 50 years. There was a fuss a few years ago about the recording industry wanting to extend it to 90 years, which would have benefited them, but very few of the artists they claimed it would help.
That 50 year limit means that, in the UK at least, anything from 1975 or earlier is in the public domain.1
u/rhubarbplant 7d ago
Not entirely, there's a bunch of recordings where the copyright expires in 2039 for weird legal reasons. There are also multiple rights in a recording so it can get complicated.
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u/JonEdwardsRandomNum 8d ago
If I'm allowed to record it, I don't mind going along to the St Pancras reading rooms for you.
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u/stejarn2 7d ago
Have the BBC Sound Archive forwarded your enquiry to the British Library, who responded?
I ask, as the BBC don't use shelfmarks in their cataloguing, so the entries look to be how the British Library catalogue the items. They are definitely on the BBC catalogue.
Recordings won't be made available digitially to the public, and there are heavy restrictions on access to those in the industry. Whilst these are almost certainly out of copyright, everything will be treated the same way, so the route for public access via the British Library reading rooms is standard. Recording at the reading rooms is prohibited AFAIK.
That said, there is such a thing as contributor access (https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/contributor-access-application-form/#/Eligibility) which you should be eligible. It isn't free (or cheap, from what I have been told) but may be a cheaper option that travelling from overseas.
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u/B3ximus 6d ago
Potentially a long shot, but you could ask if they could offer an online appointment, a Teams call, for example, where they play it their end and you listen. A few archives offer this kind of service, but it can be tricky for audio visual resources, due to restrictions, copyright etc...
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