1. Performing Arts Data Service Catherine Owen Describing Performing Arts Data in the Digital Environment Performing Arts Data Service University of Glasgow

2. Performing Arts Data Service Performing arts data service The PADS is based at the Gilmorehill Centre for Theatre, Film and Television at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The PADS is one of five service providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) Other Services include: History Archaeology Visual Arts Textual Studies Tower and cloisters, Glasgow University, architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1868

3. Performing Arts Data Service What we do dance theatre music film broadcast arts The PADS works with performance practitioners, archives, academics, and the performance industries and their representatives… the PADS collects, documents, preserves and promotes the use of digital resources in teaching, learning and research. Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s Production of ‘Hamlet’, 1925 Courtesy Sir Barry Jackson Trust/Birmingham Central Library The PADS collects resources relating to music, dance, theatre, film and the broadcast arts...

4. Performing Arts Data Service Some key questions What is a ‘collection’? How does cataloguing change when I’m describing digital objects? What concepts do I need to describe? How will users access my resources? How will my resources interoperate with others?

5. Performing Arts Data Service What is a collection? A database? A selection of images? A digital text? Is ‘the collection’ a static or dynamic concept? Who defines what fits together? Does ‘collection’ mean physical location? Is this meaningful when your archive is virtual? How should we control the levels at which documentation is applied? All images courtesy Donald Cooper/Photostage

6. Performing Arts Data Service Digital or analogue? Different concepts? Different users?

7. Performing Arts Data Service What do users want? An academic may seek... Russian chamber music of the early 19 th century A performer may want... Music for violin, cello, bassoon, horn and harp A teacher may want... Advanced grade pieces between 1750 and 1900 A producer may be looking for... 19 th century salon music They will all be happy with… Glinka’s Serenade on themes from Donizetti’s ‘Anna Bolena’ - but how can we make sure that they find it?

8. Performing Arts Data Service Performing arts documentation Always the same old problems… Who? Chaykovsy or Tchiakovsky Bernard Shaw or George Bernard Shaw or Shaw, G.B. Where? Theatre Royal Bristol or Bristol Old Vic or Bristol New Vic... What? Eroica or Symphony no.3 Eb op.55

9. Performing Arts Data Service Interoperability Which classification scheme? Dewey (including Reeves/McColvin revised Dewey)? UDC? LC? Specialist subject-specific identifiers? (opus numbers, scholarly works, in-house schema) Which name authority list? New Grove Dictionaries, AllMedia Guides, IMDB Which naming convention? AACR2?

10. Performing Arts Data Service Performing arts classification Classification schemes are not enough… Are we describing the ‘medium’ or the ‘intellectual content’? What is the ‘subject’ of this work? What do users need to find? Score or sound recording or music literature? ‘Autumn Moon’ courtesy Edward McGuire

11. Performing Arts Data Service Describing the performance Is ‘the performance’ the obvious ‘collection-level’? - performing arts essentially people, activity and event-related - many collections are of performance-related ephemera - can offer useful parallels for other subject areas e.g. archaeology What are the drawbacks? - not all performance data is specifically event-related - existing standards not designed to describe temporal concepts - multiple creators, dates, publishers - defining location complex

12. Performing Arts Data Service Resources for performing arts cataloguers Grove Music Dictionaries http://www.grovemusic.com/ Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/ Internet Theatre Database http://www.theatredb.com/ Authority tools for audio-visual cataloguing http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/olac/capc/authtools.html Information Sources in Music http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/ad/guides/intrmus.html IASA Cataloguing Rules http://www.llgc.org.uk/iasa/icat/ creation of restricted area on PADS servers for data assembly creation of dedicated theatre-specific metadata and display templates documentation training for project research staff data input by PADS staff on secondment conversion of additional data sources for data entry Michael Gambon, King Lear’ RSC 1983 Courtesy Donald Cooper / Photostage