August 27 Newsletter

August 27, 2007

Dear Audio Recovery Project Subscribers and Supporters,

The Audio Recovery Project is entering its final year. We had hoped to complete the project by April 4th 2008, but we expect now to continue on into the summer of 2008. We have more than 2,500 recordings—many more than we anticipated. We will be sending our subscribers 1,500 CDs, but we still have to complete the digitization of all of the material. Some of the “overflow” will be packaged for sale; some will remain largely archival material. However, we want and need to finish it all.

Audio Recovery Blog

Many of you asked for a place online where you could review the information about Audio Recovery that we have sent out previously. I’m happy to report that there is now an Audio Recovery Project blog that contains the text of all the newsletters previously sent out. This one is also posted there. The address of the blog is:

http://audiorecoveryproject.blogspot.com/

Go there for information in past newsletters on purchasing ARP cabinets, recommendations for storage, a list of participating organizations, and updates on our progress to digitize the Vidyadhara’s teachings.

Audio Recovery Staff Consult with Canadian Conservation Institute

In June Gordon Kidd, Director of Kalapa Recordings, and Chris Levy, Audio Recovery Technician, were invited by the Canadian Conservation Institute to attend a one day workshop on digital media preservation strategies in Ottawa, all expenses paid. The work of the Shambhala Archives in this area was identified by CCI as a model project in Canada! Chris’s report on the visit follows:

The Shambhala Archives joined two other national institutions in a one day workshop to discuss the strategies employed by each and how they might be of benefit to other smaller organizations. CCI and others were quite impressed with our strategies and methods, and how they show that it is possible to undertake such a large project with a modest budget.

As well, last May Chris was invited to conduct an information session at the Nova Scotia Council of Archives in Halifax. He was able to share information with organizations from all around the Maritimes about the Audio Recovery Project. Many other institutions are interested in our low-cost but high-quality approach to digitization.


Summer Audio Recovery News:

Summer Intern

For the second year in a row, the Shambhala Archives received a grant from Young Canada Works that allowed us to have a young person helping with Audio Recovery over the summer. Our intern this year, Cobee McNaughton, is a student at the Nova Scotia Community College. He worked closely with Chris and Sandra Kipis and did a great deal of CD duplication over the course of the summer.


Audio Recovery at the Stupa

Chris Levy attended the Vajrayana Seminary at Shambhala Mountain Center this summer, where he was also in charge of sound recording for events during Seminary. Auspiciously, this summer Bob King and other staff of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya are working on finishing the archival storage space within the Stupa for a complete set of the digitized audio recordings of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Every center participating in Audio Recovery has been contributing a small portion of the money to underwrite a set of special gold CDs of all 2,500 recordings that are being digitized for the Stupa. This will be a set of recordings that we will keep as preservation copies and a gift to the future. Chris consulted with Bob King and others while at SMC. In another auspicious twist, former Archives Director John Perkins was working on the Stupa for a few weeks and also consulted on the long term control of humidity in the archival storage area. John is a world expert in this field, having working on projects as far flung as the Buddhist caves on the Silk Route in China.

Next summer, we hope to have a ceremony at SMC to install the CDs as wonderful “speech relics” of the Vidyadhara in the storage space. All of you will be invited to attend.

ARP in Our Centers

In New York, Tina Meyerhoff and Ellen Green are doing further organization and cataloging of the ARP CDs they receive. If you are interested in the work they’re doing, contact Tina at: oxherding@gmail.com.

In Toronto, Harald Dienes is using the ARP CDs as the basis for seminars for members of the Shambhala Center. Harald can be reached at: haraldd@rogers.com

In Halifax, the cabinets containing ARP CD’s were placed in the main shrine room on the Parinirvana of the Vidyadhara, April 4. They sit next to the visiting teachers’ throne.

If you have news of ARP in your center, please share it with us.


General Update:

We continue to push ahead with the digitization and duplication of the Audio Recovery CD’s. In July shipment six was sent to you, and we expect the next shipment to go out by the end of September. If you have questions about a shipment or want more information about the recordings, including database entries, please contact Chris Levy: clevy@shambhala.org or Sandra Kipis: archives@shambhala.org

Recently, statements were sent to all centers, to encourage you to stay up-to-date with your payments, including payments for shipping. The Archives is a very small organization that has little or no ability to absorb a deficit for this project. If you think about the value that you are receiving, the investment of $9,000 per center in this project is very modest. Please make your commitment to ARP a priority.

We are preparing to send the first Vajrayana recordings to you within a few months. In order to do so, we need your signed letter returned to us, agreeing to the restrictions placed on the use of these recordings. If you have misplaced your e-mail from Sandra about this, contact her at : archives@shambhala.org

Finally, please join with me in wishing Chris Levy all good things in his marriage to Brenda Campbell on Aug 11. The ceremony was auspicious and well received by all. Congratulations Chris.

To all or you: thank you for your continued support of this project.
Best wishes,



Carolyn Gimian and the ARP Staff
cgimian@suchns.com