[1] By 1936 a number of gramophone recordings had been made, and a temporary secretary, Marie Slocombe was given the task of sorting and disposing of them.
[2] However, noticing that some included speeches by George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Winston Churchill and others, she decided that they should be kept.
[5] The collection has continued to grow over the years, and from 1998 was regularly drawn on for the BBC Radio 4 series The Archive Hour.
[9] Automatically available are "live major news sequence programmes, live music sessions and concerts, drama, arts, features, events, light entertainment, science and education programmes", while "DJ shows with commercially recorded music, local radio and World Service output" are less likely to be retained.
[11] Technological advances have increasingly improved the durability of early recordings, requiring their translation into digital formats, and enhancements such as noise reduction.