The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43824   Message #643031
Posted By: GUEST,Tom N
05-Feb-02 - 11:45 AM
Thread Name: Weakest Link: The Digital Tradition
Subject: RE: Weakest Link: The Digital Tradition
Here is what is said about DT in the Tradsong Song Index page:

"DIGITAL TRADITION

Available online at www.mudcat.org. Includes full texts of versions and midi tunes. Its all-inclusive and non-critical inclusion policy make it excellent for the singer wishing to locate a text of a particular song, but of little help to the scholarly researcher."

I don't think the above is a nasty, uncalled for criticism of DT. Rather, I find it to be a realistic assessment as to the DT's usefulness to the scholarly researcher.

For those of us who do a lot of song research on-line and off, it is important to have and maintain high standards for that research. As I said, DT is great for singers, but as others have noted, it is of little use to serious researchers. And that is OK, as we need different sorts of resources for different purposes and uses.