3.should it include contemporary songs

This is perhaps the only section of the opening post which is worthy of sustained discussion.

I would be with Brian when he says nor would it be a very good use of limited space and money to fill the sound archive with singer-songwriter albums. I would add to this the fact that a great deal of contemporary song is of passing, transitory interest; much of it purposely so.

Consider - those who are old enough - the vast number of singer-songwriters who thronged into folk clubs during the boom years of the 1960s and 1970s and ask yourself What percentage of that huge output of songs has stood the test of time? In my opinion, the percentage is not very large and sometimes those who are now considered the better writers of that era were not the most popular at the time.

Now think about the collecting work that was being done by the likes of Keith Summers and Mike Yates during those same years and consider how interesting their work is now considered to be by those who have a sustained interest in the traditional cultural heritage of these islands.