| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
Access to Dance Research Resources:A Proposal to the National Endowment for the HumanitiesCatherine J. Johnson Documents et Témoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How? Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts 20ème Congrès International / 20th International Congress Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, p. 105 Summary Introduction - Statement of Significance and Impact of ProjectThe Dance Heritage Coalition proposes a two-year project to preserve and make accessible for the first time on-line primary research resources in dance history, including manuscript and archival materials, audio and videotape, printed texts and music, and visual collections, many of which are unique. Dance, one of the most universal art forms, is a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary art that relates to almost every area of the humanities. As Rhoda Grauer, the executive producer of the PBS series Dancing, states: "Dance has served as an emblem of cultural identity, as an expression of religious worship, as an expression of social order and power, as an expression of cultural mores, as a classical art form, as a medium of cultural fusion and as the creation of an individual artist." Research materials included in this project have a broad relevance to anthropology; social history; the history of popular culture; literature; art history, music history; the history, theory, and criticism of the performing arts; and comparative religion. With The New York Public Library as the lead institution, participants in this effort will include the Harvard Theatre Collection of the Harvard College Library; the Library of Congress; San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum; the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute of Ohio State University; the Performing Arts Archives of the University of Minnesota; and the American Dance Festival with the cooperation of Duke University Special Collections Library. This project will undertake the processing and creation of machine-readable cataloging records for both archival collections and individual items, the rehousing of materials for preservation purposes (holdings maintenance), the reformatting of selected audio, video, and film material to create user copies, and the review and evaluation of material for future preservation treatment. This plan to provide improved and coordinated access to primary dance research materials focuses on the holdings of significant national repositories as part of a continuing cooperative effort to improve the documentation and the availability of research resources for the study of dance history and related fields. By focusing on subject access to materials, the project will affect the widest possible spectrum of scholars in all disciplines of the humanities. Over 5.000 machine-readable records will be created and added to the nation's two principal bibliographic databases, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), representing over 1,500 linear feet of archival collections and 18,225 items in the holdings of seven major dance repositories. The project will include a survey to identify other collections for incorporation into the databases. Additionally, the project will develop cataloging guidelines that will be useful for dealing with performing arts research materials as a whole. The project's cooperative aspects will serve as a model for improving communication, standards, and the quality of access to performing arts resources. It will also provide a basis for national cooperative collecting policies and documentation strategies in the field of dance and the performing arts. The project will be publicized both within the dance and performing arts fields and to the general humanities community, through publications, on electronic bulletin boards, at conferences, and in other arenas. 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_29.html |
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