To start with, no less than exactly 50 tapes were converted and uploaded. That number was not intentional, but it turned out that way. The list of these tapes is below:

2. Improved quality of tapes uploaded previously

It was brought to our attention that a certain number of the tapes already uploaded to the site had only one side correctly taped, thus preventing listeners to hear them in stereo. We're not sure how and why this happened, but the problem has now been fixed: all the tapes on the site are in stereo mode. If you have downloaded some of them in the past, it would be a good idea to download them again to have a full audio quality. We apologize for the inconvenience.

3. Four levels of sound quality

1. "Excellent": no scratches, no background noise, justŠ excellent.
2. "Very good": almost as good as the "Excellent" ones, with a few audible scratches.
3. "Good": still quite audible, but with segments that contain varying amounts of scratches and/or background noises.
4. "OK": listeners need to focus on the speaker and ignore the noise or poor sound quality.
5. Not listed is a fifth category, i.e. the tapes that are in such bad shape that they are unusable. As such, they are considered "missing" and added to the Missing Tapes page in the hope that other copies will be found and funneled our way.

4. Grouping by numbers

As more and more tapes are added to the Audio Files page, finding the one you're looking for will increasingly require a lot of scrolling up or down. To help with this process, the page is now interspersed every 100 tapes with a string of links that allows jumping around more easily. So for example if you are looking for a tape in the 300 range, all you need to do is click on the "Tapes 300-399" to be brought immediately to Tape 300.

5. Multiple topics addressed in each tape

One of the charms and source of frustration of the Bartholomew tapes is the fact that while there is one title listed for each tape, there are in fact in almost all of them several more topics, too much to include in the title. As a result, it is impossible to know exactly what the tapes have to offer unless you actually listen to them. To address this problem, we are devising a new approach, and you can help.

If you go to the 500 range on the Audio Files page, look at No 502 and notice the mention "(+ Topics)" after the title, indicating that there are additional topics that have been ideintified for that tape. Click on that mention and see what happens. Unless you have disabled pop-ups in your browser preferences, you should see a small window open with the list of all the topics mentioned on that tape. If you can't see it, this is what it looks like.

How can you help with this process? If you feel so inclined, make note of the topics you hear addressed in the tapes you listen to and send them to us. As we receive them, we will add them similarly for each tape.

6. Questions or comments?

If you have questions or comments, please let us know at info@bartholomewmaterial.com. If they are of relevance for everyone, they will be incorporated in the following newsletters. Thank you!