The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173984   Message #4220126
Posted By: Steve Gardham
01-Apr-25 - 09:40 AM
Thread Name: Discussion: Transcribing Your Collection
Subject: RE: Discussion: Transcribing Your Collection
I have had a similar ongoing project like this for about 50 years, but mine is mostly text-based using mainly books and it largely includes traditional song. I still use 5x3 index cards for most of my indexes as I find them quicker to use than modern tech. Steve Roud and I started out doing similar things at about the same time but he converted onto computers quite early on. Whilst this can be easily shared it is also very time-consuming and I can use my separate indexes and my time to carry out individual intensive studies of selected ballads to the extent that Steve contacts me if he needs greater detail and we frequently swap ideas.
My card indexes comprise:
English traditional song, probably about 2,000 songs in multiple variants
Larger index of material related to traditional song including other
    English language collections.
Children's songs and games
Bawdry
Carols
Chanties
Broadsides
European ballads and relation to British
Forces songs in Eng language
17th century and earlier

I have produced some spreadsheets that relate to the first set of records, a Master Titles Index and an Earliest Versions Index.

I mainly use the data for writing histories of individual ballads for presentations, and articles on the Musical Traditions website (Dungbeetle)