Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017 - Public - 63

electronic records that will help archivists sleep at night:
* Keep a set of clean finalized files. (Earlier drafts might
also be worth saving.)
* Consider creating secondary "read-only" copies of finalized files. (PDF for text documents, DXF for AutoCAD or Vectorworks, and "show data" files for things
like Lightwright.)
* Create and stick to consistent file naming conventions.
(Maybe rename that "final final final FINAL" file after
the show is over so you can go back in a year or two and
know what it is without opening it.)
* Make backups! (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe.
This is a library joke, but it is relevant. Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe, or LOCKSS, is project headed at
Stanford University that provides libraries with opensource tools for preserving digital content long-term.
See www.lockss.org for more information.) LOCKSS
is also a great mantra to keep in mind for your own personal electronic records.
Perhaps one day we will have a permanent solution
to preserving electronic records forever and always, but in
truth they are quite fragile artifacts, despite their ubiquity.
These are compelling reasons to make sure your digital
records are included in any conversation with archivists
and archival repositories.
The majority of performing arts archives in the
United States were established over the course of the mid
and latter parts of the 20th century. Materials have found
their way to these archives as much by blind luck and coincidence as by intentional collection development. Vast
numbers of collections are donated by avid theater fans
and hobbyist collectors. In these cases, the materials are
frequently far removed from their points of origin, and
archivists and researchers are sometimes left struggling to
reconstruct the original context of the records and some
pieces of history are permanently lost. In some cases personal collections of working professionals arrive at the archive posthumously, as family or friends of the deceased
reach out for assistance in dealing with their loved one's
legacy. In these cases too, the context and history of the
records can get quite muddled, especially if the materials have been moved around or have been sitting in storage for an extended time. One of the great advantages of
working with living records creators is that the archive
can gather and fill in missing information as the collection is acquired.
While we have no statistical data at hand to back
up this claim, anecdotal experience indicates that the
design and technology histories of theatre and entertainment may have the least representation in archives.
Technical direction, sound engineering, and production
management seem especially neglected. So much of the
profession's history has already been obscured by lack
of documentation and as the Baby Boomer generation
moves into retirement, more history is becoming vulnerable to loss.

However, this also means we have exciting opportunities to do mindful work in building design and technology focused collections in our archives. And members
of the Theatre Library Association and other performing
arts archivists around the country are ready and willing to
collaborate.
Leahkim Gannett is the librarian for
performing arts & media studies at
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Leahkim helped facilitate the transfer of the
archives of The Studio Theater in
Washington D.C., to the University of Maryland during
her time as assistant curator for special collections in
performing arts at UMD.
Beth Kattelman PhD is currently an
associate professor and curator of theatre for
the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio
State University. She served as a Theatre
Library Association (TLA) board member from 2009 to
2015, and was the TLA plenary chair for the American
Society for Theatre Research Conference in 2012 and cochair with Matthew DiCintio in 2016. Kattelman has
worked with numerous donors to facilitate the donation of
materials to the TRI. Kattelman is the co-editor with
Magdalena Hodalska of Frightful Witnessing: The
Rhetoric and Representation of Fear, Horror and
Terror (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2014).
Doug Reside PhD joined NYPL in 2011 as
digital curator for the performing arts. In
his current position, he manages all aspects
of the Theatre Division's collections and
public services. Prior to joining NYPL,
Reside served on the staff of the Maryland Institute for
Technology in the Humanities at the University of
Maryland. He has published and spoken on topics related
to theatre history, literature, and digital humanities, and
has managed several large grant-funded projects on these
topics. Reside is especially interested in the use of digital
forensic tools to study the creative process.

WORKS CITED

Gannett, Leahkim A., Vincent J. Novara, Kelly J. Smith, and Mary Crauderueff. 2015.
"Staging an Embedded Appraisal: The Studio Theatre Archives at the University
of Maryland." in Appraisal and Acquisition: Innovative Practices for Archives and
Special Collections, ed. Kate Theimer, 105-118. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

S p r i n g 2 0 1 7

theatre design

& technology

http://www.lockss.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017 - Public