National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 57| June 2002


AusStage in the Limelight

Ruth Hazleton
Ruth Hazleton

The National Library of Australia is cooperating with eight universities in developing the AusStage National Performing Arts Database. Led by Flinders University and supported by an Australian Research Council grant, the AusStage project aims to set up a core database on the performing arts. There will be two major components of the database, an index of performing arts events and a directory of performing arts resources. The directory will provide an online guide to where performing arts resources can be found.

The Index of Performing Arts Events aims to be a record of all performing arts events in Australia. Current events from January 2001, identified from newspaper listings, programs and flyers, have been entered into the database. Information on past events, pre-2001, are being added using the Australian and New Zealand Theatre Record, and by indexing performing arts programs held in the Wolanski Collection at the University of New South Wales and the PROMPT Collection at the National Library.

The National Library’s Performing Arts Ephemera (PROMPT) Collection houses much unique historical material on the performing arts in Australia including programs, brochures and publicity-information.Using AusStage project funds, indexer Ruth Hazleton has been indexing items from the PROMPT Collection of theatre material for the national performing arts database. As well as providing a much needed gateway to performing arts resources and events, the AusStage project will make the National Library’s hidden treasures more widely known to researchers and those with an interest in, or love of, the theatre.
—Peter Haddad

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