For John Charles and others:
Janet Topp Fargion has posted to the Trad Song discussion list about BL collections that are restricted to HE institutions. This is what she wrote:

As far as the idea that "so many of the online archives" are restricted to academic institutions, I'd like to point out that of the 30,000-odd recordings groups as "world and traditional music" on the online site (at http://sounds.bl.uk) the vast majority can be listened to as streamed audio by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Furthermore, anyone can register (in the top right hand corner of the screen) to allow them to create playlists and add notes, tags and comments to the recordings included. Only the David Rycroft South Africa Collection, and the Carole Pegg, Bob and Jacqueline Patten and John Howson Collections within the Traditional Music in England package have access restricted to people within academic institutions. These restrictions were imposed by Carole, Bob and Jacqueline and John respectively as recording rights holders - not by the British Library.

Hope that clarifies the situation.

Derek