Pilot Project at Toronto Reference Library

[Lee Ramsay]

Colleagues:

The Performing Arts Centre at the Toronto Reference Library has developed a proposal for the "Canadian Theatre Record", a bilingual, web-based, searchable database of primary and secondary information pertaining to professional theatre in Canada to accessible on the internet through the Toronto Public Library's "Virtual Reference Library".

The goal of the project is to pull together a wide variety of unique resources in the Centre's collection (programs, photographs, posters, playbills, stage designs, manuscript collections, production calendar, etc.) and to make them fully and easily accessible to practitioners, researchers and theatre-goers worldwide.

This is obviously a very ambitious project, and will be many years in the making, but we are at last taking our first steps.  We are currently seeking funding for a pilot project that would allow us to develop the software and explore the various processes and technologies required to prepare and maintain a database of this kind.

I am hoping that Candrama subscribers can provide some suggestions for the scope of the content for the pilot project.  We are looking to sample our holdings in such a way as to create a mini-database that is both useful in and of itself, and that also reflects the intent of the overall project so that it can be used to help secure further funding.  From previous experience, we have decided that for the pilot project we will produce only an English-language product.  Developing a bilingual interface will be a separate undertaking.

So the question is: within the constraints mentioned, what would you like to see or find useful in your work as the first, SMALL (the smaller, the better) sample of material we make available?  The productions undertaken by a single  company?  All productions of plays by a certain playwright?  Productions that occurred at a certain period of time?  Productions of plays regularly taught in secondary school or undergraduate courses?  Any other sample?

I'd appreciate any suggestions you have, and will keep you posted through this listserv as the project progresses.  If you'd like more information, or you're working on a similar or related venture and would be interested in collaborating, please let me know.

Lee Ramsay
Theatre Librarian
Performing Arts Centre
Toronto Reference Library

P.S.  Could someone please suggest what "Canadian Theatre Record" should be in French?  Many thanks.