STAGE
BYTE:
AUSTRALIAN
PERFORMING ARTS ONLINE 2001
By
Paul Bentley
December
2000
Part 2
of article
originally published in Online Currents
January/February 2001 and reprinted with kind permission of the publishers
Enterprise Information Management Pty Ltd.
LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES
Snapshot
Services in the performing
arts are provided by federal and state government institutions such as the
National Library of Australia, National Archives of Australia and the
ScreenSound Australia.
The National Library, with
significant manuscript and oral history holdings relating to organisations and
individuals like J.C. Williamson Theatres and David Williamson, has taken a
strong interest in the performing arts. Apart from developing general online
tools – such as Kinetica and the Register of Australian Archives of
Manuscripts, more direct performing arts initiatives include the provision of
minimum level catalogue entries for programs via its website.
Among state libraries, the
performing arts collections of the State Library of NSW and the State Library
of Victoria are notable. Increasingly, catalogue entries for relevant
archival, manuscript and pictorial material in the State Library of NSW are
being made accessible via its web-enabled PICMAN catalogue. These include, for
example, entries for material transferred from the Dennis Wolanski Library of
the Performing Arts. The State Library of South Australia site has catalogue
entries for programs and pictorial material. The Library and Information
Services of Western Australia has one of the major music collections in the
country.
Specialised
performing arts collections operated by performing arts centres and
authorities exist in all states except New South Wales and Tasmania. They
include the Performing Arts Museum at the Victorian Arts Centre, the
Performing Arts Collection of South Australia at the Adelaide Festival Centre,
Queensland Performing Arts Museum/ Gladys Moncrieff Library of the Performing
Arts and Perth Theatre Trust collection. Most have websites, but in general do
not currently provide web enabled catalogues.
Collaborative projects with
performing arts components, in addition to those already mentioned above,
include Pictures Australia, the Australian Libraries Gateway and the
Australian Subject Gateway.
Other sites, services & sources
Australian dance collection: a
directory of resources.
Part of the Keep Dancing
Project, a joint venture of ScreenSound Australia, National Library of
Australia and Ausdance. With
funded from the Australia Council, the project aims to locate, preserve and
make accessible film and video examples of the work of some of Australia's
leading choreographers and to link moving images with related dance resources
in other media, especially extensive dance material held by the National
Library of Australia.
Australian Museums Online
Includes a searchable
database of records held in Australian museums, including theatre and music
programs held by unlikely institutions.
Australian playscripts
Among collections of original playscripts and prompt books are
the Eunice Hanger collection at the University of Queensland, the Campbell
Howard Collection at the University of New England and the William Anderson
collections of Australia playscripts at the State Library of Victoria. A card
index of Australian drama, compiled by the Dennis Wolanski Library of the
Performing Arts, is held by the University of New South Wales Library.
National Networked Facility for Research
in Australian Music
A network of music libraries and other organisations
including the Australian National University, Monash University, Australian
Music Centre, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia and
ScreenSound Australia. Its website provides an annotated guide to music
collections, archives, libraries and museums, people, publications and
resources such as ephemera, film and moving images, manuscripts, newspapers,
oral history, pictures, printed material, sound recordings and unpublished
material
New York Public Library of the
Performing Arts
Its web catalogue is
one of the best online sources for journal citations on Australian dance.
The Wolanski Foundation
Established in 1998,
following the closure of the Dennis Wolanski Library of the Performing Arts at
the Sydney Opera House, to facilitate management, production and appreciation
of the performing arts. Research, publishing and industry support services.
Its website includes papers on information management and history,
bibliographies and links.
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