The things people ask before they trust us with a tape

No, and it is the most common way collections arrive. Bring or send them and we will listen to a sample as part of the condition assessment. What matters is whether we can establish who recorded them and whether the people speaking agreed to be recorded. If there are no forms, we can often work from correspondence, a project description, or a surviving family member's account.

No. Copyright in an interview stays where it was — usually shared between the narrator and whoever recorded them. A deposit agreement gives us permission to preserve the material and to provide access on the terms set out in it, and nothing more. You keep a full copy of every file. Depositors may withdraw the material, though we will ask you to consider what happens to it next.

Accepting, storing and providing access to a collection costs the depositor nothing. Transfer of physical carriers is charged at the published lab rates, with a charity rate for registered charities and community groups. Description is charged at $75 an hour if you want us to do it, and nothing if your group does it to our schema, which is what the deposit readiness review is for.

We take the audio from them and preserve it properly, and we will store the video alongside it as-is with checksums. We are not a moving image lab and will say so rather than pretend otherwise. For substantial video collections we usually refer people to a provincial archives and stay involved on the description side.

Yes. Closed material is stored on the same terms as everything else, with only a collection-level record public so researchers know it exists. We do nothing with it, do not listen beyond what transfer requires, and review the closure on the date you set.

Write to info@stento.info with the names, places and rough years, and an archivist will search the full catalogue including the fifty collections not listed on this site. There is no charge and no membership requirement. Replies usually take three to five working days, longer in the weeks around the symposium.

If the recording is open, yes, as an MP3 by download link, at no charge. If it is restricted, we can usually still arrange listening and, with the narrator's designated family contact, sometimes a copy. If it is closed, we will tell you it exists, tell you when it opens, and note your interest on the file so we can write to you then.

Open material is licensed case by case. Non-commercial, educational and community use is normally granted without fee. Commercial licensing carries a fee that goes back to the collection the material came from. In every case we check the deposit agreement first, because some narrators permitted listening but not broadcast.

The Gottingen Street entrance is step-free and the listening room is on the ground floor with an accessible washroom on the same level. Two of the four stations have a hearing loop and a screen showing the transcript in time with the audio. Text size and contrast are adjustable at every station. Tell us what you need when you book and we will have it set up before you arrive.

No. One cassette is a real job and is treated like one: inspected, transferred, reported on, and returned in an archival sleeve. Individuals and families are a large part of the bench's work and always have been.

Seal it in a bag, keep it cool and dry, do not play it, and call us on (902) 555-0187 before shipping anything. Mould spreads through a collection quickly and a single play can shed the layer carrying the recording. We quarantine and treat affected carriers, at no extra charge for registered charities.

Not on the preservation master, which stays exactly as the carrier played. If you need a cleaned version for broadcast or an exhibition we will make one at $40 an hour and deliver it labelled, alongside the untouched original. Both are yours; only one is the record.

Yes, anywhere in Canada, and the rates are the same. Free kit lending and in-person training are limited to the four Atlantic provinces because that is what our funding covers and what we can reach. Online clinics are open to everyone.

Any community group, school, heritage society, band office, congregation, union local or family project in the four Atlantic provinces. Loans are three weeks, free, with prepaid shipping both ways. We ask that one person from the group has done a kit basics half-day or a method clinic first — both are free.

You are not charged for anything that fails in normal use, and that includes a microphone that gets stepped on in a church hall. We would rather replace a cable than have a group hesitate to take a kit into the field. Loss of a whole kit is handled case by case and has happened twice in five years.

Often the free kit basics half-day and a clinic are enough for a small project, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a seat. The field school is worth it when you are the person who will train others, when the subject is sensitive, or when the collection is meant to outlive the group that makes it.

Yes to both. Fees can be split across three payments at no extra cost. Two seats in every cohort are held for people from community groups that cannot pay, including kit, meals and the transfer of their interview. Ask; there is no means test and no form.