The RPTF maintains several standing partnerships consistent with areas central to its mission statement.
Cold War Communications Project
Director: Anna Mazurkiewicz
University of Gdansk
Director: Jane Curry
University of California, Santa Clara
This project operates in partnership with archives and research institutions throughout the world to promote preservation of and scholarship on radio collections documenting Cold War history and culture. It includes an Archives Division, whose work focuses on identification and preservation of relevant collection materials, and a Research Division, whose members compile, produce, and disseminate original scholarship on these collections.
Director: Felèsha Love
Black Women in Radio
Black Women In Radio (BWIR) and the Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF) of the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board investigate unexplored radio culture impacting industry, advertising, and music through sound in a new contemporary project called LEGENDS: The Evolution and Legacy of Black Radio Culture. Further details will be posted soon.
Metadata Director: Stephanie Sapienza
University of Maryland
Technical Director: Raffaeli Viglianti
University of Maryland
Research Assistance: Sadie Couture
McGill University
This project operates in fulfillment of the NRPB’s charge “to develop an online inventory of extant American radio archival collections.” Originally developed as part of an RPTF flagship initiative headed by Maria Matienzo and Emily Goodmann, the project has since been reimagined as a sustainable, minimally computed static site maintained by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). The current iteration emphasizes long-term stewardship, community collaboration, and accessible metadata for historically significant and at-risk audio collections. To read more about the founding of the collection, follow this link.
Sound Submissions
Director: Josh Shepperd
University of Colorado
Director: Stephanie Sapienza
University of Maryland
Research Coordinator: Sadie Couture
McGill University
The Sound Submissions Project (SSP) is dedicated to ensuring that historically marginalized or at-risk sound collections are preserved and made accessible through a post-custodial model. SSP collaborates with collection holders — private collectors, independent archivists, or under-resourced institutions — to provide varying levels of preservation support based on need, uniqueness, and available resources. SSP prioritizes collections that fill significant gaps in the historical record, offering solutions ranging from metadata enhancement to full digital preservation and integration into the Library of Congress permanent digital archive. Donors retain ownership of the original physical media, with donation agreements customized for each collection to address donor concerns, access provisions, and rights management in a way that balances preservation goals with stakeholder needs. Click here for a more complete overview of the project, with detailed notes on its history, progress, and future plans. All current and targeted SSP collections are included in the Sound Collections Database (SCD), and are discoverable using the “Sound Submissions” facet on the Search page.
RPTF 