Will Prentice has a Masters degree in Ethnomusicology from Goldsmiths College, University of London. He was a staff member at the British Library Sound Archive 1999-2022, and from 2022 at the Phonogrammarchiv, focussing on audio preservation and digitisation. He is currently a Trustee of the EMI Archive Trust, and a member of the IASA Technical and Training & Education Committees.
Main research areas
Audio preservation strategy
Social contextualisation of early commercial sound recordings
Publications
The Safeguarding of the Audiovisual Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation strategy (IASA-TC 03) version 4 (IASA, 2017). Co-editor
Digital Preservation of Audio Content Chapter in: Managing Digital Cultural Objects: Analysis, Discovery & Retrieval (Facet Publishing, 2016)
Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects (IASA-TC 04) 2nd Edition (IASA, 2009). Contributing author
Collateral Damage – The Archivist In: The Wire magazine (2012)
Before the Revolution (2002). CD Compilation and annotation of historical audio . Topic Records, London
Talks
Back to Basics: Looking after physical Audiovisual Items in your Collection. International Association of Music Libraries (IAML), Prague, Czech Republic, 2022
Surveying Sound Collections: A Practical Guide to Making Sense of Unfamiliar Materials. The National Archives (UK), 2022
Early Recordings as Social History in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Early Recordings: the Impacts of a Transformative Technology,Royal College of Music, 2021
The IASA Preservation Training Programme. International Association for Sound & Audiovisual Archives (IASA), Hilversum, Netherlands, 2019
“Probably as Famous as Caruso”: The Gramophone Company in The Caucasus & Central Asia. City of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society, Malvern, UK, 2019
Developing and Retaining Skills in Sound Archives. Inforum, Prague, Czech Republic, 2018
Archiving Audio. JAMES (Joint Audio Media Education Support), London, UK, 2018
Looking After Our Sound Heritage. Archives & Records Association (ARA), Glasgow, UK, 2018
Training a Nation to Take Care of its Collections. IASA, Accra, Ghana, 2018
The Gramophone Company and its Recording Expeditions. Music of Georgia conference, London, UK, 2017
Challenges & opportunities in providing access to large digital audio collections. Digital Preservation for the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (DPASSH), Brighton, UK, 2017
Saving Our Sounds. Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP), London, UK, 2017
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage. British & Irish Sound Archives (BISA), Edinburgh, UK, 2017
Retaining skills in sound archives. ARSC, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2017
Ruining Preservation & Preserving the Ruins. Birkbeck Media & Culture, London, UK, 2017
Training & Education Taskforce: Final Report. IASA, Berlin, Germany, 2017
Accessing Our Sounds. Connecting Scotland’s Sounds, Edinburgh, UK, 2017
Surveying the UK’s audio landscape. BISA, Belfast, UK, 2016
Planning for Digitisation. Connecting Scotland’s Sounds, Aberdeen, UK, 2016
A Survey of Surveys (panel discussion). IASA, Washington DC, USA, 2016
Save our Sounds. ARA, Edinburgh, UK, 2015
Building a UK National Preservation Network. IASA, Paris, France, 2015