Jack White Donates $200,000 For Recording Preservation

Jack White has donated $200,000 to the National Recording Preservation Foundation. The NRPF is an independent, non-profit organization created by the U.S. Congress. The organization aims to preserve American radio music and sound recordings and to support archives, libraries and other institutions.
“Here we have a whole nation of cultural heritage in recorded sound [and] a lot of it is in precarious shape,” Executive Director Gerald Seligman tells the Washington Post, “Some was recorded on very fragile media — like old cylinders, acetates, reel-to-reel tapes — and it’s turning into shards. Some of these things have got to be saved quick.”
White is on the board of directors for the NRPF. The foundation was chartered in 2010 and is the third component of the National Recording Preservation Act.
The first element of the act established a national recording registry for music, radio broadcasts and any sounds that have made their way into the public consciousness–including recordings of AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” and the “NBC Chimes.” The second element, the National Recording Preservation Board, oversees the selection process for the registry.