Roud Index guide

Folk Song Index and Broadside Index Guide

The two indexes share exactly the same field structure, although certain fields are more relevant for one type of material than another.

TITLE1 - Title of the indexed song. Where an editor has given a master or standard  title above a song, but also provides a singer's or collector's title, the latter is preferred.  If no title is given, the first line (or part of it) is usually used.
TITLE2 - Not yet used.
NAMED TUNE - Name of the tune to which the song is set, if given (only relevant for broadsides and other printed items).
FIRST - First line of the song.
FORMAT - The format of the source in which the song is found; eg Book, Journal, Sound recording, Broadside, etc.
SOURCE - Where the indexed song can be found. Format varies considerably depending on the type of source but is either a description of the collection or the shortname for a publication, as given in more detail in the Roud Bibliography. For ease of understanding, use this data in conjunction with the FORMAT field and if further information required click on the Xnumber in the ROUDBIB field which will take you straight to the Roud Bibliography.
ASSOC SOURCE - Details of any source from which the editor of the indexed source has taken the material, if other than the oe listed in the SOURCE field.
PERFORMER - The person from whom the song was collected/recorded.
PLACE COLLECTED - The place the song was collected/recorded, or, if different, the place where the performer lived, in format: Country : County: Town/Village. In the case of commercial recordings made in places other than the performer's home town, the performer's home is given first, followed by the place of recording in round brackets; in format: Place of collection / (Place collected).
DATE COLLECTED - Date song was collected, recorded, or noted down.
COLLECTOR - The name of the collector/recordist, etc, in format: Surname, First name(s).
CONTENT - Brief summary of what is included - Text, Music (ie notated music), Audio, etc. A clearly fragmentary text is indicated by 'Frag. Text'.
DATE ADDED - Date the entry was added to the database; in numerical format 20130522.
ROUD NO. - The number given to the song to enable users to quickly find all versions of a particular song, despite variant titles. A click on the number in this field will institute a 'Roud number search', which will pull up all the database records with that number (ie all the versions of that song so far indexed).
OTHER NOS. - Relevant numbers in the schemes constructed by Francis J. Child and G. Malcolm Laws (Child and Laws numbers).
BS PRINTER - For broadsides, chapbooks, songsters, etc., the Name of the printer/publisher, Place of publication, Date (if known) Stock number, in format:
Name (Location) (Date) No.xxx.
SOURCE-LOCATION - For broadsides, chapbooks, songsters, rare or unique items, and so on, this field gives the repository or collection which holds the indexed copy.
NOTE1 - Used primarily for details of editorial interference.
NOTE2 - Any relevant or useful note.
ROUDID - The unique identifier for this entry in the database. In Folk Song Index it always starts with 'S'. In Broadside Index with 'B'.
SCANNED? - Not used.
ROUDBIB - The number which represents the entry for this source in the Roud Bibliography. Always starts with 'X'. A click on this number will bring up the relevant entry in the Roud Bibliography/Discography.
URL - When an indexed item is available online, this field contains the relevant web address. Whenever possible this is a live link, and a click on it will bring up the item or open the website.
PRINTER ID - For street literature and other printed items this number is that given to the relevant printer/publisher in the Street Literature Printers Register database. This number always starts with 'PR'. A click on this number takes the user to the relevant entry in the Register.
IMAGES - Not used.
SONGAUTHOR - Any known details of authorship; writers, composers, etc, plus named professional performers, plays or entertainments in which the song was included, places of performance, etc as given in the source, not added from elsewhere.