IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Name: Challenges of Discography in the 21st Century
Start: 2026-10-22T14:30:00+0300
End: 2026-10-22T15:00:00+0300

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Challenges of Discography in the 21st Century

Thursday October 22, 2026 2:30pm - 3:00pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Since 1936, a significant number of discographies have been compiled, which can serve as
secondary sources for further discographic research. But how do we know that the data in a
discography are reliable? What are the criteria for the reliability of discographies? This topic
has been a concern for some discographers since the 1970s. Tim Brooks’ 1996 proposal to
apply the reference system of scientific publications to discographies points to the
methodological issue that, while references were not needed for the first discographies,
following the principle of ’first to do it’, this is no longer acceptable for today’s discographers
especially when using earlier discographies as sources. Brooks’ call has provoked sharp
criticism from parts of the discographic community, arguing that the extensive referencing of
discographic data sets not only overloads the data but also increases printing costs
enormously.

For an online published discography, this problem can be solved in several ways. In addition,
it would now in principle be possible to compile a universal discography from the set of
national discographies, with practical display, search and access options. However, there
appear to be a number of obstacles to the creation of a global discographic database. Some of
the obstacles are financial and IT-related, while others are methodological, such as the issue
of standardisation or the fact that some national discographies have not yet been completed.
In my presentation, I will discuss these two of the current challenges of discography, the
reliability of discographies and the issues of a global discography, using literature and
international examples. The presentation is linked to my research on the history and
methodology of discography funded by the Bolyai János Research Fellowship (2022–2025).

Speakers

Ferenc János Szabó

Senior research fellow, Institute for Musicology, Budapest

pianist and musicologist, senior research fellow at theArchives for 20 th -21 st -Century Hungarian Music at theInstitute for Musicology ELTE RCH and acting director ofthe Library of the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy. Hisresearch focuses on the history of the recorded sound,discography... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 2:30pm - 3:00pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Short Presentation, In Person

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Ferenc János Szabó

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Ferenc János Szabó

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