Creating a Theatre Collection DigitalCommons@Otterbein Sarah L. Whybrew Digital Initiatives Librarian Good Morning. My name is Sarah Whybrew and I am the Digital Initiatives Librarian at Otterbein. Today I am going to share with you how we created a digital theatre collection in our IR. I am going to run through some back ground information and then will show you the actual site and walk you through it.

Why create this collection? Project History Why create this collection? Theatre Advisory Board New Department Chair Building awareness for the Digital Commons@Otterbein Storage space issues on our servers This project came about as the result of a dedicated alum named Mark Peters who was in Otterbein's Theatre Program in the 1960's. He has converted thousands of negatives into digital images over the past 10 years. I joined the Theatre Advisory Board in 2016 partly because of my own interest in theatre but also because we like to have a liaison from the library to all of our academic and administrative departments on campus. At those meetings, Mark would frequently present a slide show of pictures from older shows that he had put together, and the board members would all say, “ Gee I wish these could be seen by more people! I think they would really like it”.  I of course thought, "This would be perfect for the Digital Commons!" I spoke with our archivist because the majority of the artifacts are housed in the University Archives which are located in our library. He had approached the chair of the Theatre Department in the past but hound him to not be in favor of the project. The next year, he retired! And we got a new chair who was very interested in sharing this history with others.

Otterbein University’s Department of Theatre and Dance 5 Main Stage Productions Each Academic Year 70 + years of materials Over 4,000 Images Otterbein University’s Department of Theatre and Dance 5 Degree Programs/ Recruitment 1. Otterbein’s Department of Theatre and Dance offers 5 degree programs: BA in Theatre, BFA Design & Technology, BFA Acting, BFA Musical Theatre, and a Dance Minor. Extremely Popular with Alumni and the Community Summer Theatre

Collaboration Between Departments Department of Theatre and Dance University Archives Alumni Association Marketing IT Library Outside Vendors

Set Up Considerations Were there any copyright issues to consider? Which items to Include? Were there any copyright issues to consider? To Flip or not to Flip? How to structure the collection in the repository The location of the collection was debated since it could be argued that it would fit under Archives or the Theatre and Dance Department. Ultimately we created a dedicated community to it and linked to it from the front page. We chose to first divide the community into 5 distinct collections: The Alumni Newsletter, the Productions by Year, The Annual Brochures, An Image Gallery, and then faculty work and student work. Because of the large size, we further divided the productions collection into decades and academic seasons within that. The Otterbein Summer Theatre Productions had their own collections as they are somewhat unique and employ equity actors. Where to build the structure in the repository. Could Everything be Open Access?

Which Items to include? Programs Images from shows Ads places promoting the shows Theatrical reviews of the shows Director’s Notes Candid's from season Complaint letters from patrons

Copyright Concerns Release forms were signed by all students Images owned by Otterbein per photographer’s contracts Newspaper ads and Reviews

An additional 195 shows from 1967-2018 for Otterbein Summer Theatre Size of Collection 321 Shows from 1958-2018 An additional 195 shows from 1967-2018 for Otterbein Summer Theatre Over 4,000 images in black & white prints, color prints and digitally in flickr.

To Flip or Not to Flip? Current users of ISSUU.com – strictly for flipping technology. Some software required a programmers ability to set up and manage and I did not have that background, nor did we have an IT person on staff at the library. Some options were simply cost prohibitive. Some of the options we researched and explored: Flipping Book Internet Archive Xerox FreeFlow We are in the process of building a new website and it has a wordpress plugin available called Flowpaper. Hoping that may be our long term solution.

Scanners After initially using a flatbed copier/ scanner we purchased a SCANNX Book Scanner That Scanned, OCR’d and uploaded to our OneDrive Accounts.

Staffing/Hours Involved 2 Students From Spring of 2017 – Summer of 2016 and 2 volunteers 1 Digital Initiatives Librarian 1500 Paid Hours in last 16 months 1800 Volunteer Hours over past 10 years

Master Spreadsheet Portion

Demo the actual site. https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/theatre_dance/