EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot
FAQ Supplement HTML Version 2.4, 15 July 1998
CONTENTS
  1. What's the Agency Address?
  2. What is the BDBDB?
  3. How Do I Find Get Information About a Boot?
  4. How Do I Send In My List & Serve as an Agency Contact?
  5. How Do Referrals Work
  6. The EDLIS Photocopy Collection - Fire up your photocopier!
  7. What's the Password?
  8. Disclaimer
Back to the BDBDB homepage.

1. What's the Agency Address?Back to Contents
Send inquiries, lists, comments, praise, & positive criticism regarding the EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot... Bob Dylan Boot Data Base (BDBDB) to:
bdbdb@edlis.org

Inquiries, lists, etc., that are posted to rec.music.dylan or the HWY61-L digest are generally relayed to this address.. Direct inquiries are processed more rapidly, but either approach will work.

2. What is the BDBDB?

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The EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot agency is a referral service: Folks who have Dylan boots & are willing to assist other fans register their boots in the BDBDB. When folks have specific questions, EDLIS can refer them to somebody who is prepared to help them out.

The Bob Dylan Boot Data Base (BDBDB) contains only limited information about CD and vinyl boots (title, performer, label, matrix number, date, venue, & medium). This information is found in the online database. The BDBDB eliminates the need for extensive tracklists & reviews: a collector is ready to provide details for anything in the list.

The main body of the BDBDB is the list of collectors who have registered their ownership of particular titles & have volunteered to provide assistance to those who request it. For obvious reasons of privacy, this list is not available online. However, help is always an email away.

Please, the EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot agency is not a business! The agency does not sell boot CDs, nor does it recommend vendors. (We will comment that there are reputable vendors as well as disreputable ones, and one who buys a bootleg product should always recall, "caveat emptor".) Again, the CD & vinyl boot lists are not sales catalogs.

3. How Do I Get Information About a Boot?

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Send the title that you're interested in to the agency address. If you have a broader inquiry (e.g., boots of the 1966 Tour of England), state it as clearly as you can. Queries can be run on year, specific date, location, even other performers. Replies normally go out within 24 hr of receipt.

When inquiring, please limit yourself to 2 or 3 specific title requests in a single post. It helps on the throughput.

Of course, inquirers will be asked to submit their own collections to the BDBDB & to serve as information contacts! Extortion, extortion, extortion! As they say, "The first one's free..." :-)

Tapes that are not available as CD or vinyl boots are beyond the scope of this service. Contact the EDLIS Tape Boot agents if you are interested in circulating tapes of non-CD/vinyl materials:

tapes@edlis.org

4. How Do I Send In My List & Serve as an Agency Contact?

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Collectors register their boots by simply sending a list of titles to the agency address. Listings should indicate medium (CD, vinyl, tape from CD, tape from vinyl), or separate lists of CD's and vinyl boots can be submitted. Collectors should be alert that legitimate titles will not be included in the boot category. Separate lists of "Promo", "Foreign" or "Pirate" releases are fine, but they won't be entered into the BDBDB. Boots are the main concern at the minute but all information is willingly received in whatever form you have it.

Detailed information -- times, playlists, etc. -- is not necessary for the BDBDB and will be retained only on a space-available basis. (The purpose of this service is to allow collectors to network & provide this sort of information among themselves!) Limited identifying information such as performers, label, matrix number, venue and date of performance, is useful for properly placing titles. If you have this information handy, please do send it in, but I'm happy to receive your lists in whatever form you already have 'em!

When submitting a list to the BDBDB, be sure to include your preferred email address in the body of the message. Also please include your answers to three questions:

  1. Are you willing to provide information about your boots to inquirers via email?
  2. Are you willing to provide photocopies of the CD's themselves and their inserts to EDLIS' archives?
  3. Are you interested in trading tapes? If so, are you equipped for analog and/or DAT?
You can do this quickly & painlessly from the BDBDB online registration page

Of course, if you wish to impose any other qualifications (e.g., limit inquiries to rare items, will dub for blanks, etc.), feel free to do so. After receipt of your list, an acknowledgement will be mailed. This will serve to verify your email address, too.

As the rec.music.dylan FAQ says, the only reason EDLIS sends you anything is because others have contributed in the past! So, keep them cards & letters coming in!

5. How Does the Referral System Work?

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The BDBDB contains up to seven (7) collector-references per title. A simple priority system determines which collectors are used for referral. Inquirers are referred to the collector who has registered ownership of a particular title, has the fewest total listings in the BDBDB of owners registered for that title, & otherwise meets the inquirer's requirements. When a particular boot becomes "popular" (e.g, due to a newsgroup discussion), referrals are distributed to prevent anyone from being 'overworked."

As more collectors report owning a particular boot, only the seven with the smallest collections remain in the active referral pool. We have found that this facilitates successful tape trading. Those who register large collections serve as contacts for increasingly rarer items. At the same time, some of the most uncommon titles have been reported by collectors who owned only those boots! In short, no matter how large or small a collection might be, the BDBDB needs it to be listed!

7. The EDLIS Photocopy Collection

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In the BDBDB CD List, a {P} code indicates that EDLIS has photocopy materials on file. {Q} indicates that EDLIS has a query on the title -- perhaps materials are needed on a variant or there are other questions about it. And, there are many boots for which copies aren't on hand. Craig Jamieson at Cambridge University maintains a collection of these items. Collectors are encouraged to follow the directions below & contribute to this project.
        INSTRUCTIONS -  For each  CD you  should  photocopy  the  CD
        itself and  all sides of all of the inserts on A4 [210 x 300
        mm] or  standard [8.5"  x 11"]  sized paper. (Do NOT cut the
        photocopy to size, they are filed as A4 sized pages) Inserts
        all come  out, though  removing the  back one  is  a  little
        tricky until  you have  done it once. Be prepared to break a
        fingernail during  the learning  process.   Matrix numbers -
        i.e. the company and number information punched in, found on
        that little  ring near  the centre  and  read  with  extreme
        difficulty -  do not  always come out well in the photocopy,
        so check  and if  it is  less than  perfect write the matrix
        number on a part of the page well clear of the CD's image.

        Send your little bundles to:

                               R.C. Jamieson
                                    NEIS
                         Cambridge University Library
                                 West Road
                             Cambridge CB3 9DR
                                    U.K.

8. What's the Password?

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The online discography is available at the EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot website. When you access the database, you agree to abide by the EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot acceptable use policy. You may review the acceptable use policy now or later from the EDLIS - Who Has Which Boot home page.

9. Disclaimer

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Albeit anarchic, this Internet service does not promote, encourage, condone, or even wink at piracy of legitimately copyrighted materials! EDLIS, the BDBDB, and their various affiliate organizations make no warranty express or implied about anything. Void where prohibited. All models over 18. Your mileage may vary. The tapes are in the mail. ;-)