nancyjo,

I use MS Acess for exactly the same purpose you have in mind, but Excel will do the job if you are more comfortable with it. Just remember that Excel limits you to 65535 records per worksheet, assuming one row for column headers.

I actually have two MS Access databases. One for commercial recordings, one for my own field recordings.

The master table of the commercial recordings database has the following fields (columns if you are using Excel).

Note that each record of the table (row in Excel) represents a single item on a recording, NOT an entire recording.

1. Selection Title
2. Alt Title 1
3. Alt Title 2
Three fields for title? Fiddle tunes often have several different names. I'll use the name given it by the performer, but mention other names I am familiar with.

4. Location Title - The full name of the recording exactly as it appears on the recording
5. Location Unique ID - the reference number of the recording exactly as it appears on the recording
6. Location Format - I have tapes, CDs, and LPs.
7. Side - if your collection includes tapes and LPs
8. Track #

9. Main Artist
10. Artist Name to Sort On
Two fields for artist?
The "main artist" field might hold the name of a person, a group, a band.
This field contains the full name exactly as it appears on the recording.
The "main artist" field is not particularly useful for sorting, which is VERY useful. So the "Artist name to sort on" field is also included. For example, if the "main artist" field contains Mike Seeger, the "Artist name to sort on will contain" "Seeger Mike".

11. Song?
12. Instrumental?
boolean fields

13. Main Instrument
14. Category
15. Comments

Hope this helps.