On 12/9 the EMS magnetic tape collection will be moved over the the University of Illinois Sousa American Music Archives. This process has been a long time coming and I am proud to of played a role in seeing that this collection is preserved long-term.

I have cataloged everything in the collection which includes nearly seven hundred unique materials and thousands of individual compositions. I have converted this info into an Access database and have been using SQL to analyze the data. I am in the process of creating a report/article that has my findings, some info regarding the history and role of the collection, and some preservation priorities within the collection. I will be depositing this document on the University of Illinois institutional repository, IDEALS.

As an archivist’s surprise, the very last item that I found and cataloged in the collection was a binder full of playbills and flyers from EMS performances (see above). This document is a fantastic legacy of the EMS and I will scan it before the collection is transferred.

Regarding the move, the Sousa will be receiving the following materials:

• All magnetic tape recordings
• Videocassette recordings
• The paper based materials that Eli deems fit to pass over to the archives, this includes paper ephemera (posters, playbills and flyers (these are all in one notebook), Scott’s W’s original catalog info, composition scores, anything else that I’m forgetting about.
• Scott Wyatt’s original wooden box containing the catalog cards for the collection.

The following materials will be retained by the EMS

• LPs, EPs (i.e. vinyl records)
• DATs
• Compact Discs
• All of the electronics, gear manuals, cables, and general needed stuff for the operation of the EMS.

There will be about twenty-five linear feet of materials being moved and around five hundred magnetic audio tapes.