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Street Literature and the Circulation of Songs David Atkinson and Steve Roud (eds). London: The Ballad Partners. 2019. vii + 178 pp. ISBN 978-1-9161424-04. 12.00 [pounds sterling] + p&p. www.theballadpartners.co.uk/publications [...]

Dundee Street Songs, Rhymes and Games: The William Montgomerie Collection, 1952 Margaret Bennett. Illustrated by Les McConnell. Ochtertyre: Grace Note Publications, 2021. v + 125 pp. + CD. ISBN 978-1913162-14-6. [...]

This paper reports on a number of challenges faced in tracing contributors to research projects that were originally conducted many decades previously. The need to trace contributors in this way arises in projects which focus on involving research participants in previous studies who have not been maintained on a database, or with whom the research team has lost contact since the initial study. The paper focuses, in particular, on the use of social networking sites to trace contributors and reflects on the issues raised when using these tools for this purpose. It reports on a study which attempted to trace, using the social networking sites "Facebook" and "Friends Reunited," contributors to surveys of childhood play conducted by Iona and Peter Opie in the 1950s and 1960s. Success in using the sites for this purpose was limited and it is suggested that in cohorts which include generations and communities that might use new technologies less frequently than others, additional methods to track down participants may be required.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on many aspects of children's day-to-day lives, including their play. Measures such as lockdowns, school and playground closures, quarantine, isolation and social distancing introduced to curb transmission have resulted in major consequences for where, when, how and with whom children can play. This article reports on interim findings from 'The Play Observatory', a 15-month project researching children's play experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collecting data through an online survey and online case studies, the research offers insights into ways in which children's play has endured, adapted and responded to restrictions brought about by the pandemic. This article focuses on children's digital play throughout this period, including examples of digital gaming, online play, social media, playful creation of digital media texts and hybrid online-offline play. Drawing on theories relating to dynamic literacies, multimodal perspectives and the Reggio Emilia concept of the 'hundred languages', this article examines the role of the digital in children's contemporary play practices and the specific affordances of digital play during times of stress, uncertainty and physical distancing. The findings highlight ways in which digital play continued, adapted, evolved and reflected children's experiences and understandings of the pandemic. The study reveals the complexity of digital play and its place within contemporary digital childhoods, troubling simplistic notions of 'screen time' and highlighting the increasingly blurred boundaries around digital and non-digital practices, calling for educational approaches that value digital play as significant meaning-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Music of American Folk Song and Selected Other Writings on American Folk Music Ruth Crawford Seeger. Edited by Larry Polansky with Judith Tick. With a Historical Introduction by Judith [...]