[ARSCLIST] discography's future?

[Daniel Shiman <daniel_shiman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks -- I’m an audio-focused UT-Austin MSIS student writing my final paper for an audio preservation class.  The paper's subject is something of a survey of discography, from the early years of Delaunay and Gramophone magazine listings up to, and including, the present.  

While I’ve been able to track down some history on earlier discographical compilation, there’s not much (that I’ve found, at least) on the current state of discography - especially in the age of digitization and databases.

I am keenly aware of the UCSB Victor project, along with dozen or so online databases that I’ve referred to over the years for my own research (Rockin’ Country Style, the amazing jazzdisco.org, the specialized Red Saunders Research Foundation, the ASCAP/BMI databases, and even the much-maligned allmusic.com all spring immediately to mind).  

Two questions, then:

1.  Are there any major database-based discographical projects afoot (especially institution-specific and/or in-house projects that aren’t available to the Internet) that I should be aware of?

2.  Have there been any discussions or forums in the "literature" (ARSC-related or otherwise) about the affordances of databases and their possible implications for discography (audio/visual/multi-media content, XML and Wiki-style collaborative projects, faceted searching, etc.) ?   (Again, I’ve looked, but haven’t found much.)

Thanks so much in advance for any wisdom on the subject!

-Dan Shiman
UT-Austin School of Information

p.s.  Feel free to email me offline.