What became of TDH2017

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Haruo's picture

I was looking for information on this book of mine, knowing I had added it, but it's disappeared. Don't know why. Google knows it's there. Or was.


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The Dayton Harmonist was deleted from Hymnary because as far as I could tell it was a locally produced book made for a meeting and it was not widely available. Also it looked like the indexing had been abandoned.

Notification of those who are invested ought to be part of the procedure. 

The commercially motivated and accessible should not rule. DiNAH is full of "local" productions from the 19th century. I keep defending Hymnary on groups of hymnists who disparage it, but this doesn't encourage me. 

The local and atypical is often of greater interest than whatever has 972 instances. I was in a discussion with people all over the country (not "local") about metrical adaptations of 1 Cor. 13, sparked by Rob Tivoli Atkins' version to LONDONDERRY AIR which I found on this site (in the User Forum), and I mentioned TINKLING BRASS but couldn't locate the English text. So I googled it, and Google sent me here, which once I realized it was in the Dayton Harmonist didn't surprise me because I knew that was in My Hymnals. But no, it had been removed. And without notice. I feel deprecated. I give money to support this site. I give hours to build up this site. I find this site invaluable in many respects. But I find the destruction of my efforts disheartening. Is this something that those who design the ruling set of rationales are taking into account? I don't know. Transparency is not apparently a central priority.

I notified you in September. 

Indeed, a little bit of communication or discussion would have been a wise gesture before deleting someone else's work, especially the work of an active and prolific contributor.

Just because a collection is not widely available or was locally produced doesn't mean it should not be indexed. Take, for example, the Northfield Hymnal, which was produced mainly for the annual Moody Bible Conference in Northfield, MA, although it seems to have been distributed more widely; or Alexander's Hymns No. 3, which had an American Ed., a British Ed., and a lesser-known Blue Mountain Ed., each different, the latter of which (indexed here) would have been "not widely available" but is important because it contains a hymn by Ada Habershon, "To the Savior we commend you," not included in the other editions. 

I notified the editor to inform him that I was removing "Dayton Harmonist." There were a handful of hymns entered and the information was incomplete. The hymnal information should be able to be verified and proofed, i.e. in a library, or able to be purchased.