L'Institut International de la Marionnette (IIM) houses l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette but also a Research and Documentation Centre, which retains heritage collections (puppets, posters, and artists' archives, etc.). The Institute also animates Puppetry Arts Portal (PAM) which allows the promotion of its digital collections, but also those of 26 other partner structures [...] To better enhance its collections, the Institute is modernizing its tools and adopting the FRBR cataloguing model.
Thanks to PMB, l'Institut International de la Marionnette refines its cataloguing and enhances its collections
Migration and data aggregation for new possibilities
A new portal will host the merger of two projects : the PAM on the one hand and a shared SIGB on the other hand. Raphaèle Fleury, Head of the Institute's Research and Documentation Center explains : "Two tools coexisted and we lacked efficiency. So we decided to aggregate all the data into one tool".
PMB Services' solution allowed the Institute to merge all data and to develop new functions. "So, we've changed the way we used to work" says Raphaèle Fleury. "The FRBR model has proved interesting because it highlights the specificity of our cultural domain: the performance is managed as an intellectual creation, whose different versions and interpretations can be described in the context of events (day and place of performance) and all the documents concerning the show can be linked to the right level. The FRBR model allows us to be much more precise in indexing data and to make relevant links between documents that were previously unrelated."
A limitless network of data
The Institute was inspired by what has already been done in the music world. "Puppets are not only objects, they also incarnate characters. They have roles that it is important to clarify", Raphaèle Fleury continues. We are therefore in the process of increasing the model thanks to a semantic module that PMB Services has provided us, and which allows us to detail our entire scope: the properties of the materials making up the puppets, the lexicon, the repertoires, the characters. Gradually, a huge network of data is forming."
"This multiplies the types of possible entries" adds Aurélie Oudin, librarian.The searcher may find an information through various means, and the general public may enter the data through subjects that are familiar to them. It is a radical change in the way the librarians of the Institute work [...] "Our work is more rewarding and stimulating. With this way of cataloging, we learn a lot about puppertry and its universe [...] We do research, investigations, it is much more interesting. The results are quickly visible via graphs and this immediatly gives meaning to our data entry" Aurélie Oudin concludes.
This is an extract from the article that was published in Archimag - n°315 - June 2018
