I ran into this clip while looking for info on Kissinger's records.  It
provides a glimpse into one type of archival work.

For anyone who wants to get a sense of what my work at NARA was like
for a ten year period, here's a link to a publicly released audio clip:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB123/2-52.mp3 .  This is an
excerpt from one of the Nixon White House tapes, a telephone tape from
1971.  The speakers are Richard Nixon and his national security
advisor, Henry A. Kissinger.   They discuss a number of topics,
including the Vietnam War, foreign policy matters, Nelson Rockefeller,
etc.

Keep in mind that we had no transcripts for most of these White House
tapes, so we first listened to them to find out what as on them.  We
archivists created topical subject logs as we listenend.  (I helped
develop the subject log format for NARA.)  The NARA archivists' subject
log for conversation WHT-2-52 -- the audio clip above --  is posted at
www.ssa.gov/history/Nixon/wh002052.rtf ) .
  We then  listened to them again to determine what we could release to
the public and what required restriction.  Tone tape segments indicate
deletions made by NARA.  (See
http://nixon.archives.gov/find/tapes/processing/withdrawn.html, where
NARA explains that "All withdrawals, including unintelligible
withdrawals, are represented on the tapes by a ten-second tone."

Other clips are available at
http://www.ssa.gov/history/Nixon/nixontapes.html.  For some reason, the
Social Security Administration's history office decided to obtain this
information from NARA and post it on its website.

Again, I spent 10 years, 8 hours a day, listening to these tapes.  I
spent the other 4 years of my NARA career working with White House
textual files.  The telephone tape linked to above has good sound
quality.  Tapes recorded in the Executive Office Building had more
problems and can be much harder to follow.

Maarja
(Former NARA Nixon tapes archivist, 1976-1990)

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