Re: [ARSCLIST] A listing of sound collections?

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: RA Friedman
>Specifically, I'm interested in those holding large numbers of non-Jewish
78s, recorded in the US by
>Eastern European immigrants.
>Does such a document or partial document exist anywhere? Also, does it list
what type of
>cataloging/indexing/auditioning facilities exist for each collection?  For
instance, an archive may be
>uncataloged or simply grouped by any number of criteria. It may be indexed
but not linked to any kind of
>database that might give background and related information concerning
genre, keywords, original texts,
>sheet music, first lines.
>My guess is that this may be wishful thinking, but if there is any kind of
starting point for gathering
>this info, please let me know.
Good question! From the wording, I'm assuming you are thinking of
institutional collections; obviously,
there are no lists of private collections. Does ARSC or any similar group
(associations for libraries,
librarians, music librarians, etc.) maintain a database of institutional
collections...and, if so, do
these include data, general or disc-specific, on the contents thereof?

RDI was conceived as a sort of super-catalog of the holdings of several
large collections (an ur-version
of the proposed Project Gramophone database). As I interpret your question,
what you are asking about/suggesting is a sort of "database of databases?"

Also, by "non-Jewish 78s, recorded in the US by Eastern European immigrants"
do you mean the sort of
"ethnic" records discographized by Spotswood? The problem is that the
companies issuing such recordings
usually sourced both from US recordings and "homeland" recordings...and
collectors, unlike discographers,
don't distinguish between the two!
Steven C. Barr