About Collections & Services

• Collection Overview & Highlights
• Obtaining Copies of Recordings
• New Reference Books
• Preserving Your Sound Recordings
• Web Radio Recording Schedule
• National Recording Preservation Board
• Donations
• Packard Campus of the National
• Audio-Visual Conservation Center

Research Tools

• Reference Assistance
• How to Find Recordings
• (SONIC) Recorded Sound Catalog
• Finding Aids
• NBC Radio Collection Guide
• Radio Form/Genre Guide
• Show Music on Record Database
• Jazz on the Screen Database
• Chasanoff/Elouza "Amazing Grace" Collection

What's Online

• Tony Schwartz Collection
• WWOZ Collection
• Recordings Available Online
• Ordering Poetry Recordings

Location:
  101 Independence Ave. SE
   James Madison Building, LM 113
   Performing Arts Reading Room
   Washington, D.C. 20540-4690
   Map showing location

Hours:
Monday - Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm
Closed Weekends &  Federal Holidays:

Contact

ATTENTION:
Listeners are advised to contact the Recorded Sound Reference Center two  weeks prior to visiting.

• All sound recordings are stored offsite and researchers must schedule a listening appointment at least two weeks in advance.
• Most manuscript collections are stored offsite and require a week to be retrieved.

The Recorded Sound Reference Center provides access to the commercial and archival audio holdings of the Library of Congress. The collection dates from 1926 when Victor Records donated over 400 discs to the Library's Music Division to supplement its print and manuscript holdings. In the custody of the Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division since 1978, the collection has grown to include over 2 million items encompassing audio formats from cylinders to CDs. The holdings complement the field recordings of the American Folklife Center and the moving image collections served in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room.