Make a Donation to the Project

Financial Support

The UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive relies on grants and outside funding for its ongoing operations. Infrastructure and project leadership are provided by the UCSB Library, but ongoing funds for digitizing, cataloging, and preserving new acquisitions as well as acquisition of rare cylinders comes from private individuals, foundations, and government agencies. If you would like to help support the project, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

If there is an individual cylinder that we have not yet digitized, consider adopting it. To adopt a particular cylinder, please participate in our Adopt a Cylinder program.

It costs the library $100 to catalog, digitize, rehouse, and preserve a single cylinder. Adding another 500 cylinders to the archive and putting them online would cost approximately $25,000. If you would like to support large-scale digitization and make a substantial or ongoing financial contribution to the project, please e-mail project director David Seubert or call 805-893-5444.

Donating Cylinders

You can help the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive grow by donating recordings for digitization and long-term preservation. Cylinders that the library doesn't already own (provided that they are in good, playable condition) will be digitized and added to the collection for others to enjoy and study. You, your family, and friends will be able to listen to the online recordings anytime, with the knowledge that these recordings will be preserved for posterity at the UCSB Library and that they will contribute to a growing collection of audio that is freely accessible to scholars and the public. Your name will also be permanently associated with the cylinders that you donate.

All types of cylinders are welcome, from brown wax cylinders to Blue Amberols or even home or field recordings. Whether they are rare or not so rare, you can ensure that they are preserved in the proper environment for future generations and that they will be accessible to the public. Donations of 78rpm recordings are also accepted.

We regret that we cannot digitize recordings unless they are donated to the Library.

For further information on donating to the collection, please contact the curator:

David Seubert
Department of Special Collections
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010
(805) 893-5444
seubert@ucsb.edu

We are grateful to the many donors who have helped the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive grow into the rich resource it is today.