The projects listed here are one off, discrete pieces of work, which have been undertaken alongside our more routine activities.
The VWML is a hive of day-to-day activity, with our staff involved in (list not exhaustive!): purchasing, accessioning and cataloguing new books; indexing new journal issues; receiving and sorting new library and archive donations; accessioning and cataloguing archive material; answering enquiries; working on conservation and preservation issues; organising and running conferences and lectures; working on online systems, catalogues and indexes; engaging in professional development; attending and speaking at conferences; managing volunteers; writing and updating policies and procedures; publicising our collections; digitising our materials; putting on, or collaborating on exhibitions; speaking to groups of visitors; assisting Artistic Bursary artists; and dealing with image and licensing requests.
Just three of our biggest projects in recent years are summarised below. More details are given under Current Projects and Past Projects.
Folk Song Subject Index
Creating an online subject index for folk songs, along with a thesaurus of keywords: an ongoing project!
Read more
Browse the Folk Song Subject Index
Gypsy and Traveller Voices
Our archives contain many songs sung by Gypsies and Travellers. A new resource makes these songs more accessible to the communities from which they came.
Part of a Gypsy and Traveller Voices in UK Music Archives project, led by Dr Hazel Marsh (University of East Anglia) together with Dr Esbjorn Wettermark (University of Sheffield) and Tiffany Hore, Director of Library and Archives at the English Folk Dance and Song Society and funded by the University of East Anglia’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Account.
Read more about the project and download the PDF resource
Carpenter Folk Online
Making available for viewing browsing and searching the extensive Carpenter Collection. Dr James Madison Carpenter (1888–1983) recorded traditional songs and mummers' plays recorded between 1927 and c.1943 using a dictaphone machine and portable typewriter.
Read more
Browse the Carpenter Collection
Earlier projects have resulted in the digitisation of thousands of items, of interest to amateur and professional researchers of the folk arts. Many of these are in the collections of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and many more are housed at libraries including Clare College, Cambridge and the British Library.
