CORRECTION 3/11/10: This story incorrectly identified Conference on World Affairs founder Howard Higman.

Internet users can get free access to the Conference on World Affairs' extensive historical archives thanks to a new Web site set up by event organizers and the University of Colorado Libraries.

Featuring streaming digital recordings of famous figures such as Henry Kissinger, Yitzhak Rabin and Ralph Nader, the site showcases some of the conference's most memorable moments between 1959 and 1994. Copies of original programs, panelist biographies and photographs are also available.

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For more information on the archives or to make a donation, visit colorado.edu/cwa/archives.

"It's really one of the greatest resources for public thought that is this accessible," said project manager Ramsay Thurber.

Some of the audio materials, recorded on obsolete reel-to-reel tape, were in danger of degrading beyond use after being stored in the attic of the Hellems Arts and Sciences building in the 1970s and '80s.

The archive program retrieved them from Conference on World Affairs offices after the death of conference founder and CU professor Howard Higman in 1994.

"There was a real immediacy and urgency to the project," said Bruce Montgomery, faculty director of library archives. "We had to go through a long process of testing to see if (the tapes) were even viable. If we don't begin to digitize them now, they may be irretrievably lost."

The Web site launch was funded by a bequest from the estate of Bernice Shawl, in honor of her family friend and conference co-chair Jane Butcher. In-kind donations by G.W. Hannaway and Associates and SmartMove Branding provided much of Web site design, audio digitalization and technical advice for the project.

"I think it's pretty amazing what the CWA was able to put together basically for free," Thurber said.

Currently the site features only a tiny portion of the conference's audio and video archives. Eighty of an estimated 8,000 hours of material have made it on the site to date.

"We're taking it one step at a time," conference spokeswoman Maura Clare said. "Our first priority is to preserve the tapes that are at risk. Now that we have a methodology and the people and processes in place we can work on this very efficiently."

Planning for the second phase of the archive program will begin after the 62nd Conference on World Affairs, which runs April 5 through 9 on the CU campus. The site's expansion will rely largely on donations.

"One thing I can tell you, we can do an awful lot with a modest amount," Clare said.