The Vinyl Record Preservation Society collects records being removed from the Library of Congress’ collection and distributes them to schools and nursing homes.

The Library of Congress is the repository for all copyrighted material and therefore holds a vast collection of recordings. As the collection has grown and the Library looks for more storage space, they have discovered that they often have more than the required two copies of items. The Library must remove tens of thousands of these records to make space for incoming material. While the purge is necessary, the idea of destroying even extra copies of these records was more than some of us could bear. Rather than just collect and protect these records, however, we decided to put them to use in schools and senior care facilities. 

By providing records to schools, the students get to do more than just listen the music itself (which they could probably find in a digital format), they also get to appreciate the art of the sleeve and experience the unique “warmth” of a completely analog music experience and possibly learn about the technologies involved. Likewise, thousands of residents of long-term care facilities could benefit from the records. More than just providing entertainment, studies have shown the incredible benefit music can have on cognitive performance in memory-care patients. A trip down memory lane, listening to a record and looking over its cover isn’t just a pleasant experience - it has real therapeutic value to senior citizens and can improve their quality of life.