Performing Arts Data Service
Catherine OwenDescribing Performing Arts
Data in the Digital Environment
Performing Arts Data ServiceUniversity of Glasgow
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
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...
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?
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
Performing Arts Data Service
Digital or analogue? Different concepts? Different users?
Content? Type? Format? Location? Access?
AnalogueResources
namesplacessubjects
photosrecordingsscoresvideo
slidescassettespaperdvd
address‘phone no.shelf no.box no.
opening hoursrightsrestrictions
DigitalResources
namesplacessubjects
photosrecordingsscoresvideo
tiffrealaudiojpegmpeg
URL softwarebandwidthrightsrestrictions
Performing Arts Data Service
What do users want?
An academic may seek...Russian chamber music of the early 19th 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...19th 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?
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
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?
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
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
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 1983Courtesy Donald Cooper / Photostage
