The Weekly Archivist interview: Team Leader and Music Request Archivist

Cate Jele
SABC Radio Archives

The SABC Radio Archives, which forms part of the SABC Media Libraries, has Archivists who focus specifically on requests and on servicing of our clients. This is part of a series of weekly interviews where they will all answer the same questions addressed to them.

It is a way of getting a better understanding of what an Archivist do, as well as getting a better insight into the scope of our collections.

The Archivist answering the questions this week is Cate Jele. She is the Team Leader for the Request Team in the SABC Radio Archives, and she focuses on music requests as well as Ikwekwezi fm requests.
She has been with the Radio Archives for 12 years. She works very close with the request archivists to coordinate the daily research and requests coming in.

Cate, please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)

I was born some years ago in a township called Namakgale in Phalaborwa. I am the first child in a family of four. I studied a lot of things, amongst them is music. I personally do not see it necessary to mention titles. I worked for Top Teach Tutor center which was a branch of the college called SACTE as a lecturer for three years. When the government decided to merge teachers colleges, ours was also affected. It closed down in Feb 1998.
I then by God’s grace landed a post in the SABC in July 1998 for Assistant Archivist, please do not ask what it meant. But, then that was my title.


Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What type of requests do you receive?

A normal day starts with requests like “In 1957 the SABC came to our school and recorded our school choir and I was a member of that.  I need a copy”. This request is of sentimental value to the person and I need to share in the passion in getting it. I always put myself in the client’s shoes. How will a feel if I do not get the recording? This always pushes me to go an extra mile. My job has made me realize qualities that were hidden in me e.g. of being a servant. I get fulfilled when I have helped; just the sound of a thank you on the other side just raps my day.

Tell us more about the collection you focus on and the scope of material you need to preserve.

90% of my time is dedicated to requests as I do requests for music and Ikwekwezi fm. 10% is shared amongst cataloguing, data cleansing and other projects. Should I call them extra mural activities?I have been in charge of the 78’s collection in the archives which I enjoyed as I would make a great deal of discoveries e.g. when I got hold of other works by the honourable Enoch Sontonga which are very valuable. I had to restructure my work looking at the majority of requests I get and the types of recordings requested for. I am now cataloguing school choirs in a hope to bring more smiles onto people’s faces.
The genre came in handy last year December when RSG requested Christmas carols by school choirs. I had more than enough to provide.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

The fact that we need to keep recordings at the best quality possible especially music, it becomes a problem when certain mediums becomes obsolete or when music is recorded on sensitive mediums such as vinyl’s or acetate tapes and they need to be doctored first before you use them, sometimes the quality is lost in the process or the music is just unusable.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.

I have shared some already in the other questions. The music collections are a treasure. I remember listening to “King Kong musical” which I found amongst the 78’s. Listening to documentaries of Dr Yvonne Huskisson about our African Indigenous music are also very rewarding. The original sounds of African instruments; the women singing in the field; all these just remind one of who you are and how rich our history is. 

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I already have. ;-)

Related posts:
The Weekly Archivist interview: News and Actuality requests
The Weekly Archivist interview: Sport
The Weekly Archivist interview: News and Actuality
The Weekly Archivist interview: Channel Africa

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives. 

Interview with a systems administrator in the SABC Record Library

Marinda Wolmarans
SABC Record Library

This is the second interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Record Library, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. It is a way of generating a better understanding of what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview is with Marinda Wolmarans, a Systems Administrator in the Record library. The SABC Record Library houses recorded music, previously unavailable, as well as all genres of recorded music, including Jazz, Gospel, Kwaito, Rap, Rave, Classical, World, Light, Mood, Sound Effects and others. The music is regularly accessed by staff and made available to internal clients of the SABC.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Record Library)
I was born in JHB. I worked at Trust Bank now Absa and from there started at the SABC.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office.
When I arrive in the morning the first is checking e-mails and regularly during the day as well.  The Regions and JHB send performers and labels to be added on the system to be able to capture the information on the system.  Not one day is the same, some days problems that affects all the Regions will be send via e-mail or I’ll be contacted telephonically to rectify the mistakes made on the systems.  I check CD information and send the mistakes back to the regions and JHB personnel to rectify.  It takes a lot of time because you have to check who added the CD first, everything needs to be written down and checked thoroughly. People need to be focused when capturing of CDs are being done.

What does the future have in store for us digitally?
I can’t wait for the Digital System but I foresee we might have problems with the information on the CD’s and the actual songs on the disc. I hope that all the information that we currently have will be transferred without any major problems.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.
Every day has a different challenge.

Related post:
Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC record Library

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library

This is the first interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Record Library, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. It is a way of generating a better understanding of what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this week is with Justice Muthakhi, the Record Librarian and Team Leader in the Record library.

The Record Library houses recorded music, previously unavailable, as well as all genres of recorded music, including Jazz, Gospel, Kwaito, Rap, Rave, Classical, World, Light, Mood, Sound Effects and others. The music is regularly accessed by staff and made available to internal clients.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Record Library)
I was born in Venda (Thohoyandou). I attended school from the beginning to standard 9. I obtained Senior Certificate while I was working. I joined the SABC straight from school.   I spent most my life in the music industry as a link between the record companies and the SABC record library. Ordering CDs and dealing with public enquiries. I also capture CD information on the record library system. 
    
Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What music do you give priority to?
Normal day?  I do not have something like that.  Each day has a different call. Although Tuesday is a day for Record companies and independent producers to sample their latest products; some of them come from as far as Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland.  I have to accommodate them any day of the week. This means I could go to the SABC foyer any time of the day.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the record library.
Our collection  stands at:
Light Music over               59000
Classical Music over          21 600
Transcription discs over     4 000
In our storeroom we have also a collection of LP’s and Seven Singles that are still in use because not all songs are on compact discs.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?
Yes, change in technology is very fast and for me to keep up the pace is little bit difficult. I would say to have enough time to close the gap is a challenge.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.
To work with people is a challenging situation and interesting as well. I meet different personalities every day and I learn a lot from these individuals.  Sometimes it is painful but at the end they help me to grow spiritually.

 Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Short overview of acetate discs

By Marius Oosthuizen, Sound Engineer, SABC Radio Archives

Marius Oosthuizen is responsible for the sound restoration of these old acetate discs in the Radio Archives.

Since the 1930s, most blank acetate discs have been manufactured with a base, usually aluminum ,glass was used during the war years and cardboard for inexpensive home recordings), that was coated with nitrocellulose lacquer plasticized with castor oil. Because of the lacquer's inherent properties, acetate discs are the least stable type of sound recording.

Acetates are records, usually recorded at 78 RPM, usually 10 inches in size recorders, which were on the market during the 1940's. They have an aluminum metal base, coated with black lacquer, which the recording stylus etches (cuts) the groove into while recording. Most recorders had a constant-pitch feed screw which moved the arm containing the recording-stylus across the record at a constant rate.

Acetate records for recording have blank labels, which are there  to mark the title, artist (or "recorder"), date, speed, and whether the disc plays "outside in" or "inside out". "Outside In" means you put the needle on the outside like most records (and the needle works its way to the center while it plays -- the groove moves the needle along). "Inside Out", or "Center-Start", means you must put the needle on the innermost groove, and the groove will push the needle toward the outside while it plays. "Inside Out" records are quite rare.

Transcription discs recorded by radio stations, however, particularly the 16-inch variety, usually have the second side recorded inside out; it is so the equalization changes are less noticeable....equalization (that is, treble and bass) changes, particularly with diminishing treble response, as the needle makes its way toward the center, and was particularly noticeable on these early records (but not noticeable to the human ear on modern stereo LPs).

The Weekly Archivist interview: News and Actuality Archivist

Markus Mmutlana
SABC Radio Archivist: News and Actuality

The SABC Radio Archives has seven Archivists who specialize in specific areas/languages of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. There are also Archivists who focus on requests, and we have a Sound Engineer that assists us with technical issues. There will be a weekly interview that I will try to pose the same questions to each of the Archivists.
The SABC Radio Archives forms part of the SABC Media Libraries at the SABC.

The Archivist answering the questions this week is Markus Moroke Mmutlana.
He has been with the SABC Radio Archives for 12 years, and before that he was working in the regions. Seven years of his service in the Sound Archives was spent in the Northwest region in Mafikeng.

Markus continues with his story:
In the Northwest Region I had to resuscitate the Motsweding Fm Sound Archives that had been dismantled when the Pretoria Broadcast centre closed down. I fortunately was one of the main clients of the Radio Archives there and knew what was expected of me to do. Therefore unpacking all the programs that were sent over there and arranging them in their former order was not much of a problem as I had been a regular client of the Radio Archives while in Pretoria. Yes, I needed help sometimes and Peter Raseroka had to come from Johannesburg Archives to give me that.
I believe it is also important to share this with you, that I came into the Radio Archives having a broad knowledge of how programs were made since I had been with Radio Operations for years. There I‘ve been a technical man for Sport broadcast; Current Affairs; Outside Broadcast and inside Studio Programs Recordings; Open Air Musical productions such as Setswana traditional music done in Botswana; and ended up as a specialist Drama Technical producer. I gathered much knowledge of equipments used in those fields. May be let me also add that there are some dramas I wrote that I have had to archive. You’ll realize that these must have taken place over some years, but to me it seems like yesterday.

Markus, please give us a little bit of biographical information. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)
I was born in Lady Selborne in Pretoria, raised up in Skilpadfontein, Marapyane near Settlers. I an ex Mamelodian (Mamelodi High School Student) and also a Bexo (Bethel Training College ex-student).  I studied as a teacher and never taught, but matriculated through private studies.  Before joining the SABC, please don’t ask me when, I worked as a dispatch clerk for a company that was known as Pretoria Wholesale Druggist. Where that company was is now the Two Way Skinner Street.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to?
As I am a news and actuality Archivist for RSG and SAFM I must always know what is brewing in the government and various political fields and parties to be abreast with some fresh stories that one can quickly digitize on CD and also catalogue and avoid pushing too much material into backlog. Other than that my priority now is to deal with the 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Reports on Radio Sonder Grense, the Afrikaans SABC Radio Station.  This is part of the backlog we have – I have now completed cataloguing the SAFM 1996 TRC reports.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.
My backlog includes news and actuality programs dating as far back as 1994 to date. These sometimes include tributes and other informative programs or features annual lectures of some of our country’s heroes.
  
Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

I have long been in this technical field of audio productions and if there be some difficulties that I pick up is the ever changing technology that forces one to consult with those who have the expertise every time. For example the problem I picked up with batch conversions of sound on Dalet using a memory stick, then to Wavelab. This would give me a problem when I burning a CD by refusing to burn indicating that the sound have not been converted to the correct Hertz. And the other challenge was to use Powerpoint which I do not regularly use.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.
My most interesting story was when I picked up a news item, as I was going through some Current Affairs tapes, where former president Nelson Mandela told the news reporter how he was arrested by the police man, Forster on his way from Durban to Johannesburg. On being asked what his name was, he said he was David Motsamai. He tells the story with such humor.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.
I am convinced that I am busy with preservation of important information about our selves and our country which would be needed by our children’s children and interested groups for research in the future.                          

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

Interview with the Information Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Abel Thulare
SABC Information Librarian

The SABC Media Libraries consists of five sections, the SABC Information Library, the SABC Radio Archives, the SABC Record Library, the SABC Music Library and Audio Restoration. This is part of a series of posts of interviews to gain a better understanding of the work that we do. We work in silos and are not always aware what our colleagues are doing on a daily basis.

The interview is with Abel Thulare, an Information Librarian who works in the Newspaper Cutting Section of the SABC Information Library. He works very close with SABC Television and Radio journalists and producers in ensuring that they get the most up-to-date information about any requested topic that they are working on.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Information Library)

Born in a small town called Sabie, in Mpumalanga Province. I moved to Tembisa at the age of two.  After completing my matric I studied B.Bibl. at the university of Pretoria which I completed (Former Rand Afrikaans University) now known as University of Johannesburg. I conducted my in-service training at the Kempton Park Public Library in 1998. In 2000 I worked as a Professional Library Assistant at St John’s College Library. I then went on to further my studies at Havatech-Pretoria where I studied IT (Programming) which I found very exciting & challenging. In 2002 I worked as a Junior Librarian at Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA). In 2004 I moved to the Council on Higher Education where I managed the Resource Centre. Between 2007 & 2008 I worked for two different companies Spar North Rand (Dry Goods Receiver/Checker) and ABI Midrand (Supervisor). I then moved to the SABC in June 2008 and to tell the truth I’m here to stay!

Well-well-well! I’m a good cook, baker and mechanic.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What material do you give priority to?

Scanning SABC Radio Bulletins dating back as far as the mid 1950’s.

Electronic cutting and pasting of current newspapers for preservation.

Providing efficient information to internal & external stakeholders as fast as lightning.

I sometimes man the book & magazine section if my colleagues are not around.

I try by all means to keep a balance of my chores.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

The Newspaper Cutting Section in the SABC Information Library has a collection of 3 200 000 newspaper articles. The following newspapers are ordered for this section: Beeld, Sowetan, Business Day, Star, Citizen, Mail and Guardian, Rapport, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the City Press. Every day articles are scanned in on the Newbase System and then electronically cut, pasted and indexed.

We select the articles which are newsworthy, broadcast related or important to keep for our heritage.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Of course yes! First of all it’s our email. I always use more of it to send information requests to internal & external stake holders.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting information, please share it with us.

“We will make sure the men in blue end up in orange if they commit crime” Gen Bheki Cele. That’s a good one for me.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

It keeps me busy and up to date with what is happening around us.



Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

The Weekly Archivist interview: News/Actuality and Sport Request Archivist

Bernard Monyai
News, Actuality & Sport Archivist

The SABC Radio Archives has Archivists who focus on requests. This is part of a series of weekly interviews where they will all answer the same questions addressed to each of them.
It is a way of getting a better understanding of what an Archivist do, as well as getting a better insight into the scope of our collections in the SABC Media Libraries.




The Archivist answering the questions this week is Bernard Monyai. He is the News, Actuality and Sport Request Archivist. He works very close with the news and actuality journalists of radio and television at the SABC.

Bernard, please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)

I grew up in Ga-Matlala-a-Thaba between Mokopane and Polokwane districts of Limpopo and studied BA degree specializing in Politics, Information Science and English at the University of the same province. I also obtained an Honours degree in Information Science at Rand Afrikaans University (now called UJ). I had previously worked at the bank before joining SABC Radio Archives.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What type of requests do you receive?

The first thing I do in the morning is to check my voice and e-mail messages for any new requests for previously broadcasted radio footage on politics and sports.

Tell us more about the collection you focus on and the scope of material you need to preserve.

News/actuality, current affairs and sports programmes are my specialty. I’m currently digitizing raw archival footage previously preserved on cassettes for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, containing more than a thousand minutes of audio.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Yes, it depends on the nature of the difficulty such as playback or recording equipment, internet, Dalet, Microsoft packages, technical PC, etc. Fortunately we do have our own Sound Engineer (Marius) and the BIT.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.

Former Malawian President, Hastings Banda on his arrival at London airport responded interestingly to questions from a certain journalist. His answers were like: “I’m not gonna answer that question”; “I’m not gonna tell you”, “Don’t ask me that question”, and so on.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I like being aware and knowledgeable about South African audio history in particular and the world in general. But the best part for me is providing access to archival material to all kinds of people from all sorts of persuasions and professions. The SABC Radio Archives collection is quite educational and intuitive and I guess it’s also entertaining. We preserve current affairs programmes daily and that means we are almost always up-to-date.

Question and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist at the SABC Radio Archives.   

Interview with an Audio Restoration Engineer at SABC Audio Restoration Department

Bags Farrell

This is part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Audio Restoration, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. It is a way of generating a better understanding of what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this week is with Bags Farrell, an Audio Restoration Engineer.

The Audio Restoration Section is responsible for converting the internally recorded collection of records (Transcriptions) to CD and re-distributing the music to all SABC media libraries in the country.  With a constantly changing technology and the switch to digital sound, the Sound Restoration Unit has had to keep up with the changes.

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Audio Restoration Section)

I have always been interested in sound. I used to do my own cassette to cassette editing before I even joined the SABC. I started work at the SABC in Main Control, where we would link up Regions and Studios for recordings or for discussions. One program I recall that we had to link up was “Test the Team”, where the quizmaster was in Cape Town, one team member was in Durban, another in Johannesburg and the third in Pretoria. Things didn’t always run as smoothly as they sounded when the program was broadcast!  From Main Control I moved to what was the called “Productions”, where we recorded programs for later broadcast.
Today, almost everything that is broadcast is “live”. In the past, it was all pre-recorded!! Whilst in Productions, I completed a Drama course and moved into the Drama studios. When Drama closed, I moved into Audio Restoration.

2. Please tell us about a normal day in your Studio. What audio do you give priority to?

My normal day starts with the collecting of a pile of records (Transcriptions) from Maryna’s office and then transferring them into the computer. As they go into the computer, they go through a set of machines that remove most of the surface noise, e.g. crackles, clicks and excessive hiss. Any noises that get through the first set of machines are removed using computer software. The tracks are then numbered, as per the information provided and the Restored Audio is transferred to CD.
No specific priority is given to any audio, but if a request comes in for a record to be transferred to CD for imminent broadcast, it is then given priority!

3. Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the Audio Restoration Section.

The Transcription Department was established to give up-and-coming artists a chance to record their music professionally, at no cost to themselves, and have it on a record for their private use. It also became a repository of local artists and local music for the SABC to promote local talent. In later years, it became a means of recording and preserving our local music.

  4. Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?  

The biggest technical difficulty I had was switching from PC to Apple Mac computers. Everything I do with audio is done on an Apple and when I first started using the machine, it was very difficult switching to a new computer. My technical training for studio work was very good, so the biggest technical difficulty I have is to get styli for my turntable!

5. If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio, please share it with us.

The most interesting piece I did was not necessarily the audio that I restored, but rather the circumstances.
I was approached by a presenter and asked if I could help him. He presented me with four pieces of a Bakelite record, that he had knocked and broken that morning! I started the restoration process by sticking the record together with masking tape. I then had to record the record into the computer. Although the music was only about ten minutes long, it took about five hours to record. The stylus wouldn’t track the grooves properly, so every time the stylus jumped a groove, I would have to go back and re-record! Eventually it was ready for processing. I started by taking out all the thumps, then the crackles and clicks and lastly the hiss. It was then transferred to CD. The original record was recorded in 1933. The CD today sounds as if it was recorded yesterday in the studio!! 

5. Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

Everyday brings new challenges!

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

The Weekly Archivist interview: Sport Archivist

The SABC Radio Archivists specializes in specific areas of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. This is part of a series of weekly interviews where I am posing the same questions to each of the Archivists. The SABC Radio Archives is part of the SABC Media Libraries in the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

The Archivist answering the questions this week is Johann Greyling. He is the Sport Archivist.
He has been with the Radio Archives for 15 years, and he is the Team Leader as well as the Database Manager for the Cataloguing team in the SABC Radio Archives.

1.       Johann, please tell us about where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives.  
  

I grew up in the Eastern Cape, in a small town, Alexandria. From the Eastern Cape I migrated to the Boland for my high school years at the Pioneer School in Worcester. From there I found my way to UJ, then known as RAU, where I completed my B.Comm. degree in Sports Management. I joined the Radio Archives straight from varsity on 01/12/1995. I at least moved office once since then...

2. Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to? 

Well, I come in, check my mail, then go for coffee, then check my mail again, then morning tea... LOL!
No, what I try to do is prioritize all sport commentary. All matches broadcasted by the SABC. The three main stream sports normally take centre stage. After that I comb through all the sport magazine programs scavenging for interesting and valuable audio. Radio Services I look after includes Radio 2000, RSG, SAFM and Metro FM.
I also keep an eye on the Radio Archives database, NDM (Natural Document Management) to ensure quality cataloguing and I look after the control fields, cataloguing standards etc.

3. Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

All our collections are basically divided into two groups, a backlog and a permanent collection. The backlog is usually sorted only by service, program and date. Not fully accessible.
After we've appraised and evaluated the content, processed and catalogued it, it moves to the permanent collection. Here it stays for ever and ever and ever...
Like I previously mentioned, commentary is prioritized. Where any of our national teams are involved we keep everything, With regards the local competitions we might decide to only keep semi-finals and/or finals as the situation demands. I also keep an eye open for any audio on our 'lesser/smaller' sports as well; it is so easy to forget the non-main stream sports.

4. Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what? 

Fortunately I enjoy the technical part of our work a lot. Being blind I do sometimes need the assistance of my fellow archivists and they are great! Never complaining... to me anyway... Thanks very much all of you!

5. If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.  

This is difficult. I'd rather make mention of legendary commentators I have the privilege to listen to on a daily basis: rugby commentary by Gerhard Viviers (Spiekeries) and Heinrich Marnitz, cricket commentary by Gerald de Kock and Neil Manthorp and soccer commentary by Kevin Evans and Mogamad Allie.

6. Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I never enjoyed history at school but now it is amazing being able to actively contribute to our audio history and heritage. I truly believe what we are doing is writing our history in audio.

Questions and posting by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

Related post: The Weekly Archivist Interview: Channel Africa collection