Each year the Library of Congress selects 25 audio recordings to be inducted into its National Recording Registry, meant to showcase, “the range and diversity of American recorded sound heritage in order to increase preservation awareness.” The sounds are chosen for their significance in shaping America. In the video below, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden walks us through this year’s selections, ranging from Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” (hard to believe this wasn’t already in the collection) to NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton”. Richard Pryor, David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, Talking Heads “Remain in Light” and Vin Scully calling a baseball game were also added this year. You can see the nominees from each year (since 2002) here. If you think something is missing, everyone is welcome to submit nominations for consideration.

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion