 The Irish Music Archives at Burns Library contains collections and individual items documenting Irish music in America. Within Burns Library, the Irish Music Archives is part of a larger group of materials devoted to Irish studies. Burns Library also collects in many other subject areas and is home to Boston College's special collections. That's a library-specific term. All you really need to remember is that the materials are used on-site in the reading room. However, some materials have been digitized and are available online as well. We are often asked what types of formats are available in the Irish Music Archives. When you hear the term archives or perhaps special collections, the image that comes to mind first might be paper-based materials, such as handwritten letters, photographs, and books. These we have. However, archives often contain audio and video recordings as an important component. This is especially true for music archives. In 2021, BC's Irish Music Archives holds a wide variety of items, such as books and manuscripts from the 18th century, open reel tapes, digital video files of live BC events, and even musical instruments. You may be wondering, how did BC come to have an Irish Music Archives? In 1990, a visiting professor from Ireland, musician, composer, and ethnomusicologist Mihal Osulavan, worked to formalize an initiative at Burns Library that would focus on documenting Irish music in America. Live recordings of the 1990 BC Irish Fiddle Festival, which he organized, became a core collection. What else do we have? There's a wide variety. In the case of Boston College, there has been a long-standing focus on instrumental music, due in part to the expertise of longtime faculty colleague Seamus Connolly and the programs that he organized. Song is included as well, and so is dance. Influences from Scottish, Canadian, and various United States musical traditions can be found throughout our collections. Within these materials, what topics can be explored? It's really up to you. You can study individuals, communities, repertoire, style, the recording industry, recording formats, the Irish American diaspora, dance, and more. If you'd like to dive right in and begin listening to some music, go to BC's Irish Music Research Guide, especially to the Listen Online page at libguides.bc.edu.com. Just keep browsing and listening until you find something you really like. Then you can try to find out more on your own, or ask us where you can find similar materials and background information. If you think you would like to do a research project on site, you could begin by taking a bird's-eye view of our manuscript collections. Visit the research guide at libguides.bc.edu.com. There you'll see a list of collections, and you can take a look at any of the finding aids. That's an archivist's term for a detailed inventory. Also on the research guide, you will find links to Burns Library's contact form. That is your entryway to asking questions and making appointments. A final note. Music archives often contain recording formats that would now be considered obsolete. Preserving such items is an important archival function, as is digitizing. Although consumer playback equipment is not readily available for such items anymore, archives have methods of preserving both the media and the equipment. If you are curious about the world of obsolete recording formats, you can recommend the Audio-Visual Media Cheat Sheet from the University of Illinois. So if you're ready to get your research off the ground, we invite you to send us any questions you might have by using our contact form. We're here to help you get started and help you find the resources you need, and hopefully you'll have some fun along the way.