that provide valuable context and information about the network and its programming. The curators at UMD administer the NPR collection for public research and study.

As NPR grew and evolved, the NPR Library added transcription and music librarianship to its core services. NPR began transcribing select programs Sept. 1, 1990, and as NPR embraced digital technologies, the NPR Library began the search for a content management system that could keep up with the changing needs of the newsroom and other stakeholders at NPR. An ambitious music digitization project started in 2007, inspiring the NPR Library to develop its own digital tools. Thus Orpheus, NPR’s internal music database, was born. In 2008, with their in-depth knowledge of NPR information needs and archival workflows, NPR librarians created a vision for awith more than a dozen vintage Studer playback machines donated to NPR by radio stations located across the country eager to help this tremendous effort. RAD staff have digitized and reformatted thousands of hours of audio produced by NPR. It used to take up to three days for NPR journalists or researchers at UMD or LOC to request and receive audio stored in physical formats. Now these sounds and voices from the past are instantly accessible in Artemis.

To paraphrase Susan Stamberg, the NPR audio archive is not a history book, but history is “etched in the voices that gave these decades their vitality.” The NPR archives provide a valuable glimpse into the everyday life of the American past. The 46-year collection also demonstrates the changing landscape of American