Re: [ARSCLIST] Discographical files

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Weiss" <smweiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> A quick announcement that may be of interest. The Southern Folklife 
> Collection just completed processing 46 linear feet of discographical 
> files. 
>
Interesting...especially given our current discussion of archives and
archiving! I wonder how they arrived at "46 linear feet"...I presume it
took 46 feet of shelf space. I've never measured the space (most of my
discographic works are not actuallly "shelved" in a library sense of
that term...)?

Also noted that a large part of their holdings are "typed lists of..."
and I wonder if these were typed by their staff...or typed by collectors
whose "estates" they managed to obtain. Note that there exist a large
number of individually-copied discographic lists or other informational
works which are best described as "privately published"...which means
"a few copies were mimeographed or otherwise copied, and made available
to a limited number of interested collectors, often "promoted" only via
"word of mouth!" I have a very few of these, and suspect that many more
exist...

My point being that, given the significant usefulness of computers in
compiling and saving digital data files...we SHOULD be trying to assemble,
and possibly make net-available, some sort of ULTIMATE discographic data
file...

Steven C. Barr