Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database

Subject: Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database
From: masato sakurai
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 06:20 PM

News from the National Library of Scotland (click here).

"A pilot project is under way at the National Library of Scotland to test the conversion of the Library's Scottish song card index into an online database."

Subject: RE: Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 07 - 10:27 PM

MASATO - you have a true servant's heart - a sincere thank you for today's contribution.

Subject: RE: Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database
From: Jim I
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 04:47 PM

A great resource but I do have one reservation. In their notes on the songs whilst they do give a bibliographic reference they do not seem to give any details on authorship. It can sometimes be difficult to ascertain authorship of some songs leading to the situation where some 'modern' songs are taken as 'trad' and I feel that by omitting this information the NLS is falling into the same trap.

Jim

Subject: RE: Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 04:57 PM

Jim l:
As the page linked says At the moment, it is the only way you can access information about individual Scottish songs from the significant 18th and 19th century music collections at NLS
It is highly unlikely that there will be any problem with 'modern' songs.
If in doubt, treat it as a starting point, and continue cross-referencing elsewhere.

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: Scottish Song Index - Pilot Database
From: Jim I
Date: 21 Feb 07 - 06:50 AM

Absolutely Nigel
That is exactly how I assumed it would go. It is just that, on a 5 minute trawl of the site, one of the songs I came across was "The Arbroath Tradedy" by Karl Dallas. Now Karl has been around for quite some time but I doubt if he qualifies as "18th and 19th century"

Anyway my comment was not meant as a serious criticism, I think it is a great site and a great resource I was only pointing out the ommission. I did e-mail RLS to ask and they replied saying that authorship would be included eventually.

I only made the point because I have been frustrated trying to find authors for some of my own collection especially at the laziness of some sites which seem to assume almost every song is trad and that there is no need to include an author's name.

Jim