[ARSCLIST] Fw: 'Catalog. How it works

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: 'Catalog. How it works

ARSC list rejects attachments.  I'm sending this a second time, this time without one. 



Your personal record catalog, hosted on line. 

Examples will follow, as soon as I figure out how to get them to format for those who cannot take attachmnets.  I may send it out as an attachment only if I can't get the dern thing to fit into an email and look ok.

Steven Smolian

April 27, 2005

smolians@xxxxxxxxxx 

Here are some thoughts on a new way of looking at record cataloging for individual collectors as well as institutions.

Your catalog would be available on line. You would pay a monthly or annual fee, just as you do with your ISP provider. It may be in the $ 120 per year area.

It would be hosted by a non-profit organization, perhaps affiliated with a larger entity with an interest in this concept. Subscription funds would have to be separate from those of the host and not be accessible to it for other uses. It should not be subject to the risks of corporate mergers, bankruptcies, being kidnapped and used as an advertising tool, etc. excepting the risks borne by a non-profit. It would be eligible for grants, tax deductible donations distinct from payment for the service, etc.

The program would have to be written, tested, etc.

The host would employ professional catalogers and clerical staff. Specialist collectors will offer input on a consulting basis. 

Records can be catalogued from two directions. The catalog user can make his own entries. As data accumulates, a "proofed" group of data about the recording will either emerge, certified by an editor employed by the hosting organization, or be found among the data bases of organizations with high proofing standards and whose data is available to this new resource.

The design is to be built from the desired reports back. The model for one basic report is an expanded version of the World Encyclopedia of Recorded Music. Another is that used by Brian Rust/ Richard Spottswood in their seminal works. Yet another could list all works using a particular instrument, arranged by, say, tubist, then by composer (for classical music), then by title (for many popular musics) within the listings for each performer.

Show music falls into the classical format of composer/work/selection, but also fits listings by title/work/composer and should be available this way as well, possibly listed twice, if the user so chooses. 

Rust and Spottswood are built around performer/recording session date/title sequence in the order titles were recorded, using matrix numbers. Tom Lord continues this idea in his Jazz CD-Rom. 

No de-facto standard for rock and other recent popular musics seem to have emerged. Still, a variety of useful choices would be created. Certainly producer, recording engineer, etc., will have to be there as well as a way of referencing samples.

Seeing your catalog in various ways can be chosen through check box options. For each entry, the basic type of music will be classified, say 1 for classical, 2 for jazz, etc. The user can then ask for all 1 to be in WERM order, all 2s in Rust, etc.

When I say check box option throughout, that could also refer to drop-down menus and other appropriate programming features.

Within classical (No. 1 above), say, further choices related to the filing order are to be made. 

A second will indicate the sequence. A separate recording of a 2d mvt should follow the first movement in the report, etc. This is particularly tricky with operas, especially those whose sections are unnumbered. For Wagner, page numbers for a specified, common edition of a vocal score were used by Rod Darrell in his 1936 Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia which works for me as well. This allows different kinds of musics within an overall genre to be grouped, as in WERM. It also allows musical fragments, such as those recorded on the Mapleson cylinders, to be properly positioned within the flow of the opera. 

The user can choose if he wants language titles in the original, using present cataloging rules (English, the romance languages, German) with all others in a standard English translation or wants his Russian in a Roman alphabet transliteration system he chooses. Similarly for Hebrew, the oriental languages, etc. Expansion of this feature past the first one would be added as time and money permit. 

A third digit will specify symphonic music, stage music, solo song, etc.

A fourth will indicate if the item is a concert overture, a concerto, etc. 

This allows various report sequences, depending on the user's preferences.

To meet the requirements of these varied discographic formats, each data group- record numbers, matrix numbers, birth and death dates, etc., will have to be broken down into its smallest elements, each in a separate field. 

Accents and other diacritical markings will have to be encompassed and their effect on alphabetization determined.

Accurate data for composers and titles in libraryese should be readily searchable on the Library of Congress' on-line catalog. Since the federal government cannot own a copyright, it should be available. Other such resources include those of the U.S. copyright office for song titles and, perhaps, the BBC. I'm not sure of the BBC's legal status in this context.

Where there are other ways of listing an item, those will be offered as well, once the host organization does the necessary keystroking. You will check your preferred initial listing method for each type of music when setting up your catalog. You'll be able to change these at any time. 

Nicknames and other title variants not used to create a title entry will be cross-referenced. When "Pathetique" is entered, the program will ask if you wish

Beethoven. Sonatas for Piano. No. 8 in C minor, op. 13 (Pathetique)

Or

Tchaikovsky. Symphonies. No. 6 in B minor, op. 74 (Pathetique)

Should you check whatever adjective is decided upon for another form of title entry structure, it could be

Beethoven. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, op. 13 (Pathetique)

Or

Tchaikovsky. Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74 (Pathetique)

In any event, you would then click on your choice.

There will be an ever-expanding data base of completely and accurately cataloged records. This will be searchable. Once an item is listed, it should be tranferrable to your own database with a mouse click. 

Since it is all on line, the host computer can prowl all its customer databases for the manufacturer and number of its new additions and notify those who have made informal entries for this item that a proofed version is available. A mouse click will substitute the upgrade if you so desire. It can also add the new version without removing the old one so the user can be sure it's what he wants before committing himself to the substitution. A user might just enter no more than the manufacturer and number and perhaps a key word and await notification that his entry is ready. 

There is no reason the composer, title, instrument identification entries and other data could not be available in other languages, at least those using the Roman alphabet. I'd love to see this in Japanese, Chinese and Russian as well, available simply by checking that language box. This may present some complexities which would impact the underlying program, so this is a later add-on to be considered when putting the structure together. 

Various options for Cyrillic transliteration will be offered by check boxes as

U.S. (LC) (the one that uses diacriticals and the "ii" endings)

U.S. Standard

French

German

Etc.

When downloaded, fields to which data is typically added by the user will be highlighted. The user will either fill them in or deliberately decline to do so before the proofed version is added to his personal database.

Items will be classified as "have" or "want" or "upgrade wanted." There will be fields for the condition of the record and of the cover.

Similarly, appropriate entries can be migrated to a blank MARC record for library use with any additional fields the library specifies also highlighted to aid completing the record.

There would be a short, incomplete version compressed for a 40 character screen to download to your Blackberry, cell-phone, or whatever similar portable device the future might bring. The catalog becomes a shopping aid. 

You can, of course, print out any or all of your catalog at home.

Importing from presently existing data bases and/or lists will be addressed as well. 

A section, "your copy," will address editions, condition, cost, when acquired, book value, quantity (for dealer use), location, shelf-number, etc.

I'm presenting an incomplete idea. There has been no attempt to include all permutations and variations. No one has yet written the program (as far as I know.) This simply addresses the universe of sound recordings, all media and variations, viewed through the present day possibilities of programming and internet features. 







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