Archival Methods

For more than 50 years the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds (MLNS) operated as a leading natural history audio archive - an analog audio archive.

In 1999 the MLNS began the enormous task of digitizing the collection through generous grants from the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

In 2001 the archive expanded to include video recordings of animal behavior. The video expansion has been funded by generous grants from the office of Naval Research (particularly the NOPP program), individual gifts from members of the Lab of Ornithology Board of Trustees, and by corporate partnerships with Sony, Canon, Apple Computer, Exabyte, EMC and Videobank.

For both audio and video recordings, we maintain very high standards for preservation, specimen creation and editing, quality control, storage and output.

Learn more about the audio archival process or the video archival process.