International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle

Minutes of the Blue Book Commission

Alfred S. Golding

17. Internationaler SIBMAS-Kongreß / 17ème Congrès International de la SIBMAS / 17th International SIBMAS Congress, 1.-9. September 1988, Mannheim

Bericht / Actes / Documentation. Red.: Liselotte Homering. Mannheim : Städtisches Reiß-Museum, 1990. pp. 186-187

The Blue Book Commission met for two sessions: the first on Thursday, September 8 from 4:00 - 6:00 PM, the second on Friday, September 9 from 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM. Some 12 people were present at the first session and 10 at the second. (A list of those present is appended).

The group followed a somewhat flexible agenda. Initially, Prof. André Veinstein tendered a report in which he described the background to the Fourth Edition as preliminary to the steps that the Commission needed to take to begin work for the new edition. He had reestablished contact with the CNRS and had obtained a subvention sufficient to cover all costs of publication. But, he was still seeking money for underwriting the pre-publication costs (developing the questionnaire, mailing it out, and analyzing the return answers and processing them into text). In general, correspondence would be initiated with theatre documentation centers in two categories: those that had already submitted information in the Third Edition, which needed updating; and centers that had not hitherto submitted descriptions of their collections to the Blue Book.

Prof. Golding, the Chair of the Commission, then told of the difficulties he had encountered in trying to carry out the wishes of the Blue Book Commission, conveyed to him as its chairman at the last meeting in June 1985 at London. At that time the members believed it essential that data-processing be used in making the Fourth Edition in order to hasten the process and make it more efficient. The members there also believed that this objective could be effected more easily, if at least the publication aspect (if not the information gathering aspect) be placed in the hands of a publication house with computer capability.

Prof. Golding further noted that he contacted the firms whose names Commission members gave him as possibly being interested in the Blue Book project. These publishing houses were in America and Europe. He contacted a total of nearly two dozen large and small houses specializing in the publication of reference books, but without success. All told him that the limited numbers that would be sold made it impossible economically for them to publish the work. Moreover, the price for such a volume would be too high and would discourage even reference libraries from making such a purchase.

Prof. Golding, therefore, contacted Prof. Veinstein to ask if the CNRS had by that time developed a computer-facility, since it was, apparently, the only alternative viable to us.

Both Prof. Veinstein's and Prof. Golding's reports drew a number of challenging questions and comments. Despite the brevity of the time, the Commission managed to identify and begin to solve the following problems:

1. The recasting of the questionnaire into a shorter and computer-viable format, with a view to inputting answers into a data bank.
2. The reducing of the physical size of the volume, although without destroying its uniqueness as a theatre reference volume - its description in some depth of individual theatre holdings, and its international scope. This compression, it was suggested, could be done by such means as: changing the format towards a more abbreviated verbiage (rather than having a full sentence structure); smaller type font and more compact page arrangement; and using a single rather than a bilingual edition, with English the language preferred.
3. Giving the potential purchaser three options:
a) the traditional hard cover (most expensive);

b) a paperback edition (less expensive);
c) a microfiche edition (considerably less expensive).

4. Instituting a Board of Review made up of SIBMAS members, or volunteering performing arts library and museum officials to act as overseers of the 14 linguistic geographic areas into which the world would be divided for the purpose of the 4th edition. The members of the Board would help to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information gathered from all performing arts documentation centers in their areas.
5. Using a format for the Blue Book that would be abbreviated, schematic and linked to an explanatory key in the five major western languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Russian).

Appended is an outline that embodies the recommendations of the Blue Book Commission in practical form. The outline was written immediately after the end of the 17th Congress.

September 12, 1988

Alfred S. Golding
Chair, Blue Book Commission and
Co-Editor, Blue Book

Members of the Blue Book Committee

Alfred S. Golding, Columbus, Ohio
André Veinstein, Paris
Ruth Freydank, Berlin
Bergljot Krohn Bucht, Stockholm
Wout Spies, Amsterdam
Paul S. Ulrich, Berlin
Christina Nygren, Stockholm
Kari Gaarder Losnedahl, Bergen
Lena Hammergren, Stockholm
Richard M. Buck, New York
Roger Rennenberg, Antwerpen
Lennart Forslund, Umeå
Oskar Pausch, Wien

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