“Adopt a Cylinder” Program

It costs the library $100 to preserve a single cylinder, including rehousing, cataloging, and digitizing it for public access. We currently have a backlog of over 3,000 cylinders that have not yet been digitized. In 2010 a grant from the GRAMMY Foundation® supported the digitization of over 1,000 cylinders, but there are still thousands more to be preserved and digitized.

If you would like to "adopt" a cylinder, we will prioritize the digitization of a cylinder and put it online for you and others to listen to. A $100 tax deductible donation will ensure the cylinder of your choice is preserved and accessible to the public, though a donation of any size is appreciated. When you have found a cylinder in our catalog that isn't online that you'd like to adopt, click on the on credit card payment link to pay online. When you get to the Special Collections Research Account login page, click the "first time user" link, accept the terms, complete the form, click "submit information," then click "submit request" to adopt the cylinder. You will then receive an online invoice to pay with your credit card within one business day.

Alternatively, to adopt multiple cylinders or to pay by check, email project director at seubert@ucsb.edu. Send a check payable to “UC Regents” to:

David Seubert
Department of Special Collections
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010

Please provide your name and city for our acknowledgemetns page and information on the cylinders you'd like to adopt.

Many thanks to the donors that have adopted cylinders.