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Re: [ARSCLIST] quotation marks in lists?



Hi Trey,

Just a thought..

Often quotation marks are used to differentiate performances of
titled works from text-based descriptions of an event. Especially
in an archival setting where many of the recordings therein are
unique and may (or may not) include musical performances. Take for
example the John Fahey song "On the Banks of the Owchita". With a
title like that, it could just as easily be a field recording meant
to chronicle the sounds heard in such a setting (birds, etc). That
said, quotation marks are especially helpful on carriers housing
both titled musical performances and *ambient* field recordings,
interview footage, etc.


take care, Brandon Burke



Quoting Trey Bunn <treybunn2@xxxxxxxxx>:

Here's an odd one for you.

I've completed a finding aid at the archives where I work, and it
references 24 reel tapes of field recordings of fiddler players.  For
each tape, I've done a track listing, a small excerpt of which looks
like this:

1. Little Lucy
2. Gathering Flowers from the Hillside
3. Allgood Special

...and so on.  However, my supervisor wants me to redo the track
listings with quotation marks around the song titles.  I can't recall
ever seeing a track listing done with quotation marks, and this just
seems wrong.

1. "Little Lucy"
2. "Gathering Flowers from the Hillside"
3. "Allgood Special"

I don't have my Little Brown Handbook handy, but I've usually got very
good grammar instincts, and that list just looks wrong to me.  I know
some of you have worked on discographies before, so I thought I'd
check for some opinions on the listserv.  Of course, it could just be
company policy where I work to do finding aids like this, that is,
with awkward-looking quotation marks on song titles, but it might have
been helpful had I been told that thirteen pages ago.

Anyway, any thoughts?


Trey Bunn



-- Brandon Burke Archivist for Audio Collections Hoover Institution Archives Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6010 vox: 650.724.9711 fax: 650.725.3445 email: burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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