The Folk Music Index, and: Discography of Bluegrass Sound Recordings (review)

Nicole Saylor, University of Iowa

Abstract

The Folk Music Index and the Discography of Bluegrass Sound Recordings are two robust, open-access Web sources for information about traditional music recordings, performers, and record publishers in a field with too-few established digital resources. Unlike other folk and bluegrass Web sites begun by collectors and dealers intent on selling records, these two sites—established by librarians who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to the development of both resources—focus on information discovery. The online version of each resource was launched in 1996. Both databases are currently hosted by ibiblio (http://www.ibiblio.org), an extensive "collection of collections" of open-access information on topics ranging from music and literature to politics and cultural studies. ibiblio is a collaboration between the library science and journalism schools at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.