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see end... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Noring" <[log in to unmask]> > Roger wrote: > > > Well all I know,is when I have suggested exhaustively > > researched,and detailed websites,for ARSC award consideration,I have > > been given all sorts of meaningless reasons why websites are not eligible. > > If we look at a number of published p-book discographies, most if not > all of them were published without any "vetting" by the publishing > company. They pretty much border on vanity publications. > > So what is important is the individuals compiling the discographical > information, and how they are regarded by the record collecting and > archivist communities. > > I believe that the best future discography would be compiled using a > wiki-like approach, since that allows continual correction plus > recording of disagreements. (Since discography is more database > oriented, it needs to be compiled in a special fashion.) > > In fact, ARSC might approach Jimmy Wales and see if it can work with > Wikipedia to put together an allied "Discopedia". There are, I > believe, others working on such discographies of more contemporary > sound recordings so obviously ARSC should not be an "island" on this > matter, but work closely with other groups and organizations for > common benefit. > > After all, the purpose of discographical information is to > interconnect it with other information, and the current view of > discography being an end-in-itself makes the discographical > information much less usable. > > Jon Noring > Some years ago, Steve Abrams sent me, on CD-R, his .C8T and .MX files...which I posted to a then-free web operation I had read about...CommunityZero. I hoped that there would be much more interest...and many more corrections...than I actually saw. After a very few months, CommunityZero became a "pay to play" operation...which ended my connection with the process. In the meantime, Ty Settlemeir has "HTML-ized" many of the "Abrams Files," and has them on a web site. To my way of thinking, it would be not only possible but SIMPLE for folks who own 78's to check these pages against their holdings...and provide correction and/or amendment where it seems necessary! Keep in mind that these files essentially provide NO information on classical recordings...on "non-discographized" records (i.e. not dance, jazz, blues or (now) country...) and on most post- 1942 records. I have NO idea how many 78's would be included among the total holdings of collections (private AND institutional...!)...however, I would guess it would be WELL over my paltry holdings of 50,000+! Thus, if each party responsible for a "collection of 78's" (anywhere from one to a few MILLION...?!) could/would enter the data therefrom on some sort of either a web-accessible facility or in a digital data file...all of these could be combined, with the result being a sort of "78rpm wikidatabase!" I have seen inquiries about single specific 78rpm phonorecords pop up (more often on 78-L than ARSCLIST), which usually result in knowledgeable replies...can we do this with large quantities of same...? I MAY still have an application I created using VB6, which allows the creation and editing of the 160-byte text-based data files which Abrams originally invented...