Re: [ARSCLIST] 5,000 cylinder recordings now online

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx>
> L78rpm@xxxxxxx writes:
> > You have a search function that accepts specific requests, but I can't
find
> a way of perusing the entire list of included items.  I would like to be
> able
> to browse the collection.  Is that possible?
> > You can search for a year and get hundreds of items, ten at a time, but
you
> still have to click on each one to find out whether audio is available.

> Browsing seems to be discouraged in online collections. I really wish for
the
> old-fashioned catalogs of thousands of films or recordings, which you
could
> scan, dozens per page, with all the vital information there at once.
>
> It would be wonderful to have a plaintext list, which would be compact
enough
> for 100s items per web page, with just a simple link to the downloads for
> each item.
>
> The Prelinger Archive started out that way but someone souped it up so now
it
> takes several pages to find out the length of a film or what formats it is
> in. I don't understand the desirability for this, unless it is just to
slow down
> the access to the files, like the original purpose of the QWERTY keyboard.
>
I think it may be more complicated to set up a browsable set of entries
(though I see no good reason why!). Note that the "Abrams files" to be
found on the 78Online site are also only accessible by searching, one
result at a time!

Steven C. Barr