The OED is really an international effort. I remember some years ago before computers became compact and cheap, Waterloo University in Canada aided in the preparation of an edition. As far as I know, documented usages are accepted from anyone.
Of course the printed editions are spaced a few years apart, so many of the new entries are really 'catch-up'. As you say, it can't keep up, so for the serious, one of the journals devoted to language must be subscribed to. There is always the internet, but it contains much mis-information which takes time to evaluate and discard.

The IIed. edition Oxford is 20 volumes. It has been photo-reduced to one volume, with nine full pages reproduced on each page in the "Compact Oxford..." A magnifier is provided- frankly, I don't know how easy this is to use. Moreover, it is the 1989 2nd. edition which will be 20 years old soon. I have the 2-vol. 1975 edition with suppl. vol. 3 (1987) which I am used to, and is still good despite the many additions in the last 20 years. I will stick with it a while longer. Used sets of the three volumes are reasonable ($100 or so).
An on-line subscription is quite expensive. The 'Compact...' is $249 from Amazon and used copies are listed. It seems to me that all school libraries should have a copy, but few do.

Hilo- I guess I didn't explain it well, but to an old salt, 'to Hilo" meant to partake of all the good things there- girls, dancing, drinking, etc. "Young gals, can't ye Hilo?" in a chantey was sung on shipboard as a halyard chantey; it would not be put to the gals in just that way. With regard to the Caribbean chanteys, there is another explanation.
As Stan Hugill explains in "Shanties From the Seven Seas," Hilo "was a substitute word for a 'do,' a 'jamboree', or even a 'dance'. And in some cases, the word was used as a verb- to 'hilo' somebody or something. In this sense its origin and derivation is a mystery. Furthermore, since shanties were not composed in the normal manner, by putting them down, it is on paper quite possible that many of these 'hilos' are nothing more than 'high-low', as Miss Colcord has it in her version of 'We'll Ranzo Ray'. Take your pick!"

"Hilo Johnny Brown" is believed to be of "Negro origin." Hugill gives two more of Caribbean origin, "Hilo, Boys, Hilo," and "Hilo, Come Down Below." "Helo, Johnny Brown" also is known as "Stand to Yer Ground."
I would guess that the 'High-Low' explanation would apply to these.