JohnAdams ... You've posted some very interesting comments ... "across the pond" as they say. I'm not familiar with the term "metadata." But reading carefully, I'm assuming that it refers to the written paper record?

I'm find very interesting "paper records" in my own collection. Foremost are the various scribblings I made on the back of the cardboard tape boxes themselves. These are proving invaluable. I've had to resort to some careful restoration work to recover various dates.

Then comes the occasional scribbled notes on yellowing paper I find inside the boxes. Some of these are almost gone, but again they are proving to be valuable.

When I reach the final stage of one particuliar tape. I always include EVERYTHING I have found: all the notes, transcriptions of the notes, photographs when available, and sometimes published obituaries.

Again, my goal is that someone, 100 years from now, can open this collection and find EVERY PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE I have about the singer and the song.

To do anything less would be to give short shrift to my teachers. Bob