At 09:17 PM 10/17/2005, Steve Smolian wrote:
Which is a great reason for publishing them on line.
But only if you've got access to the correct info!
Leaving aside the plagiarism issues, copying a ton of stuff straight out
of a book is very ambitious and it takes time and effort. However - in the
end you only get what was already in the book (if you're careful enough
not to introduce copying errors). And if you start with decades-old books
(like jazzdisco.org has done), you aren't aware that Roland Kirk's Argo
record has actually been released on more than just the original Argo LP.
Every discography I've done *improves* what is in the books, by including
quantitatively more data (timings, composers, release dates, studios,
track sequences, etc. etc.).
And if you are going to do an electronic discography, a sophisticated
database is the way to go. I can immediately generate a song index,
personnel index, etc. Can't be done if you just keep typing text into a
word processor. The formatting may look the same, but the functionality is
quite different.
Then there's the data exchange feature that allows information to be
transferred and for multiple users to collaborate on a single discography.
Then there's the subject of authority control. The jazzdisco.org site
doesn't know that "Bill Green" and "William Green" are the same LA studio
guy. Or the even more important fact that "Jamil Nasser" and "George
Joyner" are the same bassist. They just copied what some book said,
without doing any research. Which is why I don't trust and can't recommend
them.
Mike
mike at JazzDiscography.com
http://www.JazzDiscography.com
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