TSF Autumn Conference 2025 - Session 2

Описание: TSF Autumn Conference 2025 - Folk Songs in the archive -
Where can we find them and are they safe?

Three presentations were given in the first part of the conference:

Stephen Miller – “My papers: what shall I do with them? The Internet 1.0 researchers and their ‘remaines’
Pen and pencil, paper and ink, wax cylinders and tape, have all been used to create and curate our research materials. The Analogue Age has given way to the Digital Age and now it is zeroes and ones on a hard drive or somewhere in the so-called “cloud.” Any sense of permanency is an illusion and those “Internet 1.0 Researchers” whose Remaines are now digital now face decisions about how to ensure as best as possible that their materials do not disappear down a digital plughole. Complete solutions are definitely not promised but a sense of awareness only; however, some suggestions along the way will be made. Do not rely on your children to be interested enough in your research to bother about your papers after your death as happened with W.H. Gill.

Martin Graebe – The Baring-Gould Manuscripts – Current status
In his lifetime Sabine Baring-Gould gave two important manuscripts of the songs he had collected to Plymouth Library which were, for many years, the basis of understanding his collection. In the last two decades more manuscripts have been discovered which have expanded our knowledge about his work dramatically. These are now kept in several locations. In this short presentation Martin Graebe describes the manuscripts and their availability for study.

Chris Wildridge – Alfred Williams manuscripts as a case-study
Local record offices are vital in the secure storage of material and collections of local folk songs and other materials are a vital element in the social history of each locality. Archival cataloguing practice usually operates at the top tier ‘collection level. For example, in Wiltshire the Alfred Williams songs can largely be found on the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office catalogue with this reference: WSRO: 2598/36 Packet 4 – Wiltshire: Williams, A: MS collection. Using this a researcher would be able to retrieve Packet 4 in which songs identified as ‘Wiltshire’ can be found. That will not tell the online enquirer that included in that Packet is: Aaron’s lovely home collected from Henry ‘Wassail’ Harvey in Cricklade. A different approach using a librarian’s ‘analytical cataloguing’ approach to identifying individual songs is required. The Wiltshire Community History Website is one such. The full text of Aaron’s lovely home, its singer, where collected and Williams’ notes can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/Aarons-Lovely-home