In a library context, providing user-friendly access to play scripts is a challenge. While some libraries are able to create discrete script collections, most libraries must interfile their play scripts with other materials such as literature, poetry, and literary criticism. Perhaps more troubling are the limitations of standard descriptive metadata, which do not speak to the ways in which users search for scripts. Anecdotally, the majority of users asking librarians for help with locating play scripts are not seeking specific plays, but rather plays that meet certain criteria, such as specific playwright demographics, subject matter, casting, performing logistics, etc.
In this session you will hear from two performing arts librarians who will report on a survey of users’ needs and preferences specifically related to the discovery of play scripts. It will also include a presentation of one librarian’s homegrown project to attempt to solve this problem with their library’s contemporary play script collection. This session will not attempt to provide a comprehensive solution, but instead facilitate conversation with session attendees to brainstorm ideas on how libraries can better increase discoverability of these high use items.