Performing Art Libraries at Düsseldorf
Their role in the field of introducing computer-based information management
within the Theatre Museum and the Film Museum
Margret Schild
Theatre Museum Düsseldorf / Library (Germany)
Les collections des arts du spectacle et leur traitement
Performing Arts Collections and their Treatment
24ème Congrès International
24st International Conference
Rome, 2-7 septembre 2002
Rome, September 2-7, 2002
Abstract
Union Catalog of Düsseldorf‘s Cultural Institutions
At the beginning of the 1980ties the City of Düsseldorf founded the
„Bibliotheksstelle der Düsseldorfer Kulturinstitute“ in order to create a
computer-based union catalogue of the libraries in the numerous cultural institutions, for
example: Art Museum, City Museum, City Archive, Hetjens-Museum (German Museum of
Ceramics), Goethe-Museum, Theatre Museum (Foundation Dumont Lindemann), Film Museum.
The project GDK was a common project of Düsseldorf‘s Cultural
institutions and mediated a lot of experience in the field of computer-based recording,
specially in the field of bibliographical records, concerning the establishment and
promotion of electronic information services. The „Bibliotheksstelle“ was closed in
December 1992, cataloguing was decentralised and - in the case of the Theatre Museum and
the Film Museum - the know-how was transfered to the museum, because one of the librarians
of the „Bibliotheksstelle“ became head of the libraries of the Theatre Museum and the
Film Museum.
The libraries still participate in the Union Catalogue of
Düsseldorf‘s Cultural Institutions (Gesamtkatalog der Düsseldorfer Kulturinstitute -
GDK), the still existing computer-based catalogue with altogether about 210.000 titles in
December 2001. The stock of both libraries (about 13.000 titles each) is nearly complet
recorded and in the meantime online available. In the library of the Film Museum one
person is occupied specially with the completition of the recordings in the next two
years. Monographs, journals, scripts are already recorded. Now we are on the way to record
materials about film festivals and gifts (acquired in the last years) beside the recent
new acqusitions and all the other tasks of a OPL (One Person Library).
Role of the library in other computer-based projects
within the museums
Beside the experience in the field of computer-based cataloguing,
the library is involved in other projects:
- as representative of the Museum in a working group within the cultural department of the
City („Kulturdezernat“) dedicated to introduce software for object management in the
museums, funded by the city
- the conception and establishment of electronic user services within the library and
within the museum
- as administrator of the LAN (Theatre Museum)
- as coordinator for training in the field of computer applications within the museum
(Theatre Museum)
In small institutions, like the Theatre Museum and the Film Museum,
the tendency towards a closer cooperation between the different departments (archive,
library, museum) with different working traditions can be put easier into practice than in
great institutions. Core information categories for all departments have to be defined and
used for the recording (conventional and computer-based). In the case of the Theatre
Museum archive and library use different software but the same (bibliographical) data
format to record the titles of the libraries and the letters and manuscripts of the
archive. A card catalogue of performances of Düsseldorf is used as access point of other
materials, for example photos, press clippings pp., which are yet not recorded. In the
case of the Film Museum common rules governing the choice of the main entry for film
titles are used as far as common filing rules.
The library can play an important role (for example by the use of
authority files for person names, institution names, key word indexing) in order to enable
a consistent data recording.
Networking strategies
The libraries take already part in different networks: on the local
level (Union Catalogue of Düsseldorf‘s Cultural Institutions), concerning the subject
(Association of Libraries and Museums of Performing Arts in Germany, Working Group of Art
an Museum Libraries, Group of Film Libraries) and with regard to the tasks within the
museum (Object documentation, Recording of Manuscripts and Letters, German Union of Film
Collections, International Federation of Film Archives).
Though a high degree of networking can be stated, there are deficits
concerning the connection to the community of scientific libraries (university libraries,
college libraries, pp). In the case of Düsseldorf the relevant partner would be the Union
Catalogue of Scientfic Libraries of Nordrhine-Westphalia, coordinated by the University
Libraries Centre („Hochschulbibliothekszentrum“) at Cologne. This Centre is
responsible for libraries, funded by the state of Nordrhine-Westphalia. Beside the Union
Catalogue of Scientific Libraries the centre offers quite a lot of services, for example
the Digital Library of Nordrhine-Westphalia and document delivery services, in order to
improve the user service in the participating libraries - in this case the user of the
libraries of the Theatre Museum and the Film Museum could benefit.
Summary
After all it is a question, if other libraries in the field of the
performing arts (or museum libraries) have the same strategy: to point out their
experience in the feld of computer-based recording, to promote the librarian data formats
and authoritiy files for consistent recording and to take over an advisory function for
information management within the whole museum.
The author is responsible for two small museum libraries - the
libraries of the Theatre Museum and the Film Museum, located in different buildings in the
city centre of Düsseldorf.
24th Congress
URL:
http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas2002/Rome16.htm
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