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A microfilm publication compiled by the Hymn Society of
America.
Edited by Leonard Ellinwood and Elizabeth Lockwood.
A publication of over 1,000,000 hymn first-line citations of 192,000 separate hymns gathered from 7,500 hymnals published in North and South America from 1640 to 1978. Hymns included are all those in languages using the Roman alphabet. Altogether some 140 religious bodies are represented. The Index was compiled by 50 contributors over a 25-year period using the hymnal collections found in 82 libraries and private collections. The goal of the Hymn Society was to fill the gap in bibliographic control and access to the massive hymnal repertory of the Americas.
The First-Line Index is a filmed reproduction of first-line citations recorded with much other data on IBM cards specially designed for the Hymn Society. The sequence is alphabetical, with chronological sequence within identical first-line citations.
The complete publication consists of 179 microfilm reels and a printed User's Guide
The main body of information on the reels provides the following: first line of hymn, refrain, title, original language first-line if the cited first-line is a translation, author of text, translator, if any, collection code number which refers to hymnal bibliographical data, the date of publication.
In addition, the first reel contains a 118-page Introduction by Ellinwood which provides all the necessary information for efficient use of the Index: the explanation of the card sequence; the fields of information found on each card; a list of authors' pseudonymns; a series of essays on hymns with problematic authorships; a list, in denominational order, of the 7,500 hymnals used as the sources. The last named provides complete bibliographical data on each hymnal. (The alphabetical listing of the hymnals is a separate publication, The Bibliography of American Hymnals, a microfiche publication cited above.)
The User's Guide is an external aid in a binder which gives practical and technical information on the Index and shows which segments of the whole Index are to be found on each reel.
The DAH First-Line Index is of extreme importance to hymn researchers and compilers, seminarians, church musicians and scholars, publishers, social historians and Americanists.
Specifications: Published in 179 microfilm reels, 16mm negative in two kinds of film: -Silver halide on safety-based polyester film. -Diazo, high contrast, black line (using the hardest and most durable of the diazos available) on safety-based polyester.
Reduction ratio is 24x. Should be used with standard microfilm readers having image rotation capabilities. Each reel has eye-readable identification in the leader section of the reel.
The 179 reels are supplied in acid-free storage boxes whose labels leave space for library call numbers.
Complete Microfiche First Edition, 179 reels and the printed
User's Guide:
Silver film ........................... $4,890.00
Diazo film ............................ $3,850.00
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