ANN ARBOR, MICH. — The National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF) has awarded $7,130 to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Library, Archives and Special Collections (UCSF Archives) to digitize and preserve 252 audiocassettes from the collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett at UCSF Archives. Garrett’s career began in the 1970s and she is known as one of the most prescient voices in public health reporting of the past half-century.
The recordings, spanning the years 1979 to 2000, document Garrett’s groundbreaking investigative work on infectious disease, HIV/AIDS, and global health crises. The collection was acquired by UCSF in 2013 as part of an ongoing initiative to preserve the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but the audio recordings have remained inaccessible to researchers, since they were stored in off-site boxes and unplayable without specialized equipment. Many of the recordings are on physical media that exceeds 40 years in age, largely recorded on audiocassettes, a magnetic tape recording medium subject to growing risks of deterioration. With this grant, UCSF Archives will contract with The Media Preserve, a preservation-quality digitization vendor, to convert approximately 250 to 275 hours of content into preservation-quality digital surrogates. In addition, metadata and transcripts will be created to make the recordings discoverable through the Online Archive of California.
Laurie Garrett began her career in audio: she co-produced Science Story at KPFA radio in Berkeley, a nationally distributed series that earned the 1977 Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. She later reported for NPR and Newsday, covering HIV/AIDS, SARS, anthrax, avian influenza, and Ebola outbreaks with a rigor that earned her the Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award. Her 1994 book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, and its 2005 follow-up The Next Pandemic, offered a warning that decades later proved devastatingly accurate with the arrival of COVID-19. Her work also informed the 2011 film Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh. The audiocassettes at UCSF are the working audio archive behind that legacy: raw interviews, field recordings, and research materials that have never been heard by the public.
Lisa Nguyen, Digital Archivist at the UCSF Archives, emphasized the importance of preserving these tapes now, before restoration or specialized treatment is required to recover the audio, and also due to the significance of Garrett’s work in supporting research into the history of HIV/AIDS. Says Nguyen: “Before they became award-winning books and landmark public media reporting, Laurie Garrett’s investigations existed as hundreds of hours of interviews recorded on cassette tapes and other vulnerable analog media. As these recordings become increasingly susceptible to deterioration, NRPF’s support comes at a critical moment, helping preserve a significant portion of this irreplaceable record before it is lost forever. Beyond safeguarding these at-risk materials, NRPF’s support serves as a catalyst for broader archival efforts, enabling UCSF to strengthen the long-term stewardship of collections that document public health, scientific discovery, and the voices of communities whose experiences have shaped our understanding of both.”
The UCSF Archives emphasize preservation and digitization as key elements of their mission to make historical health sciences materials accessible. Associate University Librarian for Archives and Special Collections and Library Development, and University Archivist, Polina Ilieva remarks, “Digitization is how archives fulfill their promise. The AIDS History Project collections exist to be used. This partnership with the National Recording Preservation Foundation is a major step toward making Laurie Garrett’s recordings fully accessible to the researchers, educators, and communities who need them most.”
As one of the clinicians who confronted the earliest and most devastating years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Dr. Jay A. Levy, UCSF Professor Emeritus, underscores the significance of preserving these firsthand accounts: “These recordings capture a moment in history that many of us lived through with profound grief and determination. I am deeply pleased that the UCSF Archives and the National Recording Preservation Foundation are joining forces to ensure these voices gathered and documented by Laurie Garrett are preserved — not just for researchers, but for the generations who deserve to understand what we faced, and how we fought back.” Garrett has interviewed Levy many times over the decades.
The project advances NRPF’s mission to preserve America’s at-risk audio heritage and ensure that these recordings remain accessible to future generations of researchers, educators, and the public. “I am excited that we can help to preserve details of Garrett’s interviews and sources for the future,” says Dr. Jesse A. Johnston, Executive Director of NRPF. “The Foundation deeply believes in the importance of hearing the texture and cadence of the voices of those original interviews, many of which document the turbulence and crisis of the early AIDS epidemic, including the experience of those who lived it. These interviews are a testament to Laurie Garrett’s work to hear what others weren’t listening for during those times of crisis. The chance to preserve voices like this, which might otherwise remain silent or lost to the future, is at the center of NRPF’s mission to support the preservation of important American audio collections.”
The digitized recordings will be preserved in the Merritt Digital Preservation Repository, maintained by the California Digital Library, and made accessible through UCSF’s digital platforms, ensuring long-term stewardship by one of the nation’s leading research institutions.
The University of California, San Francisco is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. Learn more at ucsf.edu.
The National Recording Preservation Foundation is an independent charitable organization that promotes the preservation of historical and at-risk audio collections through grants, programs, and partnerships. NRPF’s 2025 Preservation Grants were made possible with generous support from the Recording Industry Association of America, the Music Library Association, and other donors. To learn more about the Foundation, or to hear NRPF’s podcast Sound Files, which features audio clips of many recordings preserved with NRPF support, visit the Foundation’s website at recordingpreservation.org.
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About the NRPF
The National Recording Preservation Foundation (NRPF) is an independent, charitable organization and registered 501(c)(3) entity. The NRPF works across the United States to foster awareness of the diverse perspectives and communities documented in audio, to support the preservation of historical and at-risk audio collections, and to coordinate resources for the digital preservation of audio recordings. The NRPF was mandated through federal charter by the U.S. Congress under the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-474) and was thereafter duly incorporated in 2010.
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