FOLK SONG INDEX and BROADSIDE INDEX
TITLE1
The title of the song, as given in the Source, or, if different, the title which the performer supplied.
Formatted: IN CAPITALS throughout; with inessential punctuation removed
Articles A, An, The, shuffled to end. e.g. FARMER’S BOY, THE.
Where the title includes spellings which will make successful searching difficult, a standard or alternative spelling might be given, in angle brackets; e.g. BATCHELOR’S HALL, THE <BACHELOR’S>; or, FOLLOW THE PLOW <PLOUGH>
TITLE2
not used
NAMED_TUNE
Mostly used in the Broadside Index; If the source gives the name of the tune the song is/should be sung to, it is given here.
Formatted: First letter and significant words capitalised.
Articles A, An, The, shuffled to the end to enable effective sorting; e.g. Farmer’s Boy, The.
Multiple tunes (e.g. in a medley) separated with forward slash /.
FIRST
The first line of the song, as given in the Source. However, if the first line is very short, the first two lines are given.
Formatted: first letter capitalised, rest in lower case, except proper names.
Articles A, An, The, shuffled to the end to enable effective sorting; e.g. First time I saw my love, The
FORMAT
The broad category of the physical format of the source, e.g. Book, Sound Recording, Journal, Newspaper, Manuscript.
SOURCE
The publication or collection in which the song being indexed is to be found; e,g. in this book, or on this CD, or in the papers of this collector. The format varies depending on the nature of this source, but what is given here is often a ‘shortened ‘ title or reference. The full details can be found in the Bibliography/Discography.
- For a book: Author surname, Short title (date of publication) page number(s) (e.g. p.42 or pp.443-444)
- For an article: Author surname, Journal title volume (Date) pages
- For a commercial recording: Label Catalogue number (Date) (‘Album title’)
- For a collection: Name of collection (Repository) Shelfmark/Finding reference.
ASSOC_SOURCE
An indication of an ‘associated’ source, usually one which is either:
- Where the source being indexed got their information; e.g. a book reprinting a newspaper article; or an article transcribing a song from a sound collection.
- Some other related source to which the user needs to be alerted.
PERFORMER
The name of the performer/informant from whom the song was noted or collected
Formatted: Surname, First name(s); e.g. Cox, Harry. Multiple names separated with a forward slash /.
PLACE
Where the performed song ‘comes from’; Normally this is the place where the song was collected or found, but in some cases it is where the performer came from; e.g. for a Scottish singer recorded in London this field will say ‘Scotland’, not ‘England’.
Formatted: Country : County/State : Town/Village; e.g. England : Hampshire : Andover.
Where two places are involved (e.g. where a Source uses a text from one singer and a tune from another, they are separated by a forward slash; e.g. Scotland : Aberdeenshire : Aberdeen / Perthshire : Blairgowrie (NB where the first or second element is the same in both, it is not repeated).
In the case of professional recordings, e.g. a string band from Kentucky travelling to New York to record, the place of recording is given in brackets, after a forward slash: e.g. USA : Kentucky / (New York).
DATE
The date the item was collected (if known).
Formatted: Year (Day Month); e.g. 1942 (23 Mar).
In some cases (e.g. a newspaper article which does not specify the date of collection) it is the date of publication which is given.
COLLECTOR
Name of the collector, if known.
Formatted: Surname, First name(s). e.g. Sharp, Cecil J. Multiple names separated with forward slash /.
CONTENT
Indicates the type of information given in the Source for this song
e.g. Audio (i.e. an audio file is available) ; Text (i.e. written or printed words) ; Music (i.e. written musical notation) ; Reference only (i.e. the song is referred to but no words or music given).
Where text or music is obviously fragmentary, the word ‘Frag.’ is used; e.g. Frag. text.
DATEADDED
Date the entry was added to the master database.
Formatted YYYYMMDD numerically represented; e.g. 20240609
ROUDNO
The Roud number assigned to this song. Songs which have been found ‘in the tradition’ are given a plain number; e.g. 1234. Songs which are only included in the Broadside Index are given a number starting with ‘V’; e.g. V12345.
NB Where a song cannot be safely assigned a number (e.g. only a title is given in the source), ‘000’ is entered in this field.
NB Where a number has been changed (e.g. a V-numbered song has been found ‘in the tradition’ and it has been given a new plain number), an entry headed [CHANGED NUMBER ENTRY] will guide the user to the new number.
OTHERNO
The appropriate Child or Laws number for the song (if any).
Formatted: Child 200 or Laws N42
SUBJECTS
Mainly used for songs new to the index. Keywords and phrases from the song text which will aid the searcher in locating and identifying the song. NB this is not usually a comprehensive synopsis of the song, but is more random and subjective.
BSPRINTER
For broadsides, chapbooks, songsters, etc., details from the imprint are given here.
Formatted: Printer’s name (Place) (Date) Printer’s stock number
e.g.:
John Pitts (London)
Harkness (Preston) No.441
John Brereton (Dublin) (1887)
NB if no imprint is given, this field is blank.
REPOSITORY
For collections of street literature, sheet music, etc., and for rare or unique items (e.g. Songsters), the name of the holding repository and (sometimes) the shelfmark or other finding aid
NOTE1
Notes pertaining to either:
- Details of editorial meddling in the source; e.g. [Composite text]; [Tune added from elsewhere]
- When data is imported direct from another index, catalogue or database, the details are entered here.
NOTE2
Various notes pertaining to the song as it appears in the source;
e.g.:
[No title given]
[Recitation]
[Included in list of songs in singer’s repertoire]
[Informant remembering their childhood, c1823]
ROUDID
The unique ID for the entry.
Formatted: alpha numeric sequence commencing with S (for Folk Song Index) or B (for Broadside Index); e.g. S23456 or B45678.
SCANNED
For embedded images and sound files, this field contains the relevant filename.
IMAGES
Not relevant to online versions.
ROUDBIB
The unique ID for this Source in the Bibliography/Discography.
Formatted: alpha numeric sequence commencing with X; e.g. X1234.
AUTHOR_COMPOSER
Where a song’s author or composer is known, the name is given here; ancillary information (e.g. date, place of residence, etc.) might follow. In addition, information about original performer (plus date, place, event) might be entered, if given in the Source.
e.g.
Written by Harry Lynn (1876)
Words by Fred Bloggs, music by Amy Finch (c1866)
Written by J.R. Sharp, sung by Madame Vestris in ‘The Duenna’, Haymarket Theatre (1877)
PRINTERID
For street literature and cheap print only: A unique ID which designates the printer of the item, as given in the PRINTER’S REGISTER database.
Formatted: alpha-numeric sequence starting with PR; e.g. PR234
PERF_GENDER
The gender of the performer, if known.
Formatted: Male or Female, or (if both) Male / Female
TYPE
In both indexes, the word ‘Song’ in this field enables differentiation from other genres in other indexes, e.g. Dance, Custom, etc.
NB ‘Song’ is used in its broadest sense and includes all items in these indexes, including Recitations, Rhymes, Poems, etc.
MEDIA
If the item is available in digitised form, this field says ‘URL link’ (for an online source elsewhere) or ‘Image attached’ (for an embedded image) or ‘Soundfile attached (for an embedded audio file).
AMENDED
not used
PLACE_PRINTED
For Broadside Index. Country and place where the item was printed.
Formatted: Country : Place; e.g. England : London or Ireland : Dublin.
CATEGORY
not used
SPARE2
not used
COUNTRY
For Folk Song Index, the name of the country in which the item was collected (if known).
Formatted as ‘England’ or ‘Ireland’. Designed for quick filtering or searching by geographical area.
