| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
Coordination and standardisationTwo assumptions for communicationJürgen Kirschner 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, pp. 108-109 Standard InventoryWhen the "Children's and Young People's Theatre Centre in the Federal Republic of Germany" began its work in 1989, the Personal Computer had already come into the world. It was not a surprise that the Centre started with a PC-network (5 user, MS-DOS, Novell), two printers (laser printer and a dot matrix printer), a heap of standard-software (word, dBase, multiplan, pagemaker) and some special software (allegro-C for libraries). In addition to the latter I adapted the databank 'wordadress' to the purposes of the office (mailing) and documentation. With now 3.000 entries the database reflects the interests connected with the Centre and is also a catalogue of the institutions which are documentated in the archives. As a second step I developed a specific databank-structure for acquisition purpose. It is based on a dBase-system, every document can be described by 42 fields. Related to this experience I can say that it is not sufficient to buy an amount of bits and bytes to receive the benefits of the electronic data processing. If one makes a decision to join this electronic club the data system technology is a constant factor in the calculation. It is not only necessary to maintain and update the hard- and software. Also the staff has to erect and foster the system. It needs time for the training of the employees and for the data acquisition. Test in BerlinFrom the end of 1991 until the end of 1993 the Centre established the "Archive of the children's and young people's theatre in the German democratic republic" in Berlin. It contains a library, audiovisual media and documents of the national and international theatre, the national centre of the ASSITEJ and biographical material. The aim was to preserve the archive as a separate collection of the Centre, to select and complete the documents of Eastern Germany from 1946 to 1989 and to make them accessible. In contact with the Centre in Frankfurt am Main a documentalist filed the documents. Besides the books I concentrated on the national theatre productions. Now one can find all documents - except the posters - in one place. Each book and each production is represented by one entry in the database. The databank contains all 1,114 stagings of the children's and young people's theatre in the GDR between 1946 and 1989, 76% of the theatre productions you can find in the archives. Those 845 entries also helped to revise the principles of the databank adaption. This set of rules together with the structure is meant as a standard instrument for the "Archives of the Children and Young People Theatre in Germany". Those tools were (just in this moment) named KIND - for "Kinder- und Jugendtheater Informationsvermittlungsstandard Nationale Dokumentation". (The international version will of course be KIND.) KINDThe Centre would like to enlarge the number of participants on this level. Therefore the Centre supports other institutions with the distribution of KIND and the existing data together with personal assistance. In the future the result will be a comprehensive documentation especially of the archives in the theatres. As a first step the Centre will carry out a survey to collect general information about the material in the theatres. Together with the questionnaire KIND will be introduced. It minimizes the waste of time and costs for the theatres to make the documents accessible. Standard ClassificationParallel to the establishment of this archive system the Centre works on a standardisation on a higher level. This time the literature and audiovisual media are concerned. Again with special grants the Centre aimed at bibliographies of the plays and the literature on children's and young people's theatre. The project will be based on the national principles of the librarians (RAK-WB, RSWK) and a special databank (allegro-C). Additional staff realize the input of the data as presumption for a publication and the data-exchange (PC-MAB standard). Again the advance of the Centre is meant as a part of an inter/national connection. For example the bibliography of the literature in the Centre will be extended to an international bibliography in cooperation with the "Hochschule der Künste" in Berlin. Electronic documentation is a fact in the Centre - and elsewere. In this article I tried to explain two conditions for the success. Without a process of standardisation and coordination each institution - or each person - would be restricted to its own resources. To further the development in research and theatre practice you have to further the communication. Therefore it is essential to link the different information systems. SIBMAS could be the place to gather the seperately grown data systems and to discuss which of those can work together in the future. 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_31.html |
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