Interacting with Archival Resources of Digital Audio: A Survey of the Experiences of Irish Traditional Musicians in North America

This article reports on findings from a survey conducted (2019–2020) on the website www.surveymonkey.com, for responses relating to experiences with digital archival resources by Irish traditional musicians based exclusively in North America. The survey sought to examine how performers perceive and interact with digital archival resources of Irish traditional music. In terms of demographics, anonymous submissions were received from a wide-ranging set of musicians, performers, dancers, broadcasters, and enthusiasts. Of the 528 responses, 206 identified as female, 310 as male, and three as nonbinary or other. Cawley and Ward both examined performers’ use of digital resources primarily in Ireland through the lens of education and acculturation (Cawley 2013; Ward 2016). They highlight the various ways that performers become accustomed to the tradition, and digital resources are seen to be a contributor to the process of enculturation. This survey focused specifically on the experiences of practitioners in North America. A focus was also placed on issues surrounding the performers’ relationships to place, the demographics of Irish traditional musicians who use digital resources, and interactions with archives in that region. Even though the Irish Traditional Music Archive website at Dublin, Ireland, was identified as the most popular web resource for musicians learning Irish traditional music in North America, a plethora of resources were identified by survey participants, which led to greater insight into the range of different approaches to audio material and archives for musicians in that region. Some implications of the work are discussed in the final section.