Theory and practice of record cataloguing

Head: Luca Cerchiari

Year 2018

The project foresees a theoretical reflection - expressed in a special text, to be published in journals - on the methods of record cataloguing, which start from the most traditional biblioteconomic discipline and then extend to the authorial, interpretorial and editorial content of phonographic supports, from the cylinder to the 45 rpm, from the 33 rpm to the CD and the network.

The cataloguing refers to the descriptive standard relating to the national library system and the European and American standards on the subject, as expressed by a now substantial bibliography and sitography. In this regard, for an update, contact was made with both the music fund research office at the Conservatory of Milan, and also the State recordings archive in Rome, which, for years, has been referred to as the central institute for audio and audiovisual assets.

The article aims to move from the state of the art of European record cataloguing and uses to propose innovative solutions in the description of information fields/data hitherto considered secondary, i.e. producers, sound engineers, graphic designers, session musicians, as well as a redefinition, especially in the field of music, of the oral tradition and mixed oral/urban, the data on the concept of session, derived from a theoretical reflection and the productive practice of jazz music. It also aims to bring to international attention the contribution of Italian and French institutions and scholars in this field, hitherto disregarded due to the predominant role played by archives and museums in the Anglo-Saxon and German area.