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MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE’S
ALLESEE DANCE AND OPERA RESOURCE LIBRARY
OPENS ONLINE TO THE PUBLIC
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Online Resource goes live with 40 years of MOT archives through partnership with Wayne State University’s School of Library and Information Science
DETROIT, Michigan, November 3, 2009... See the construction schedule for the Detroit Opera House. Scan photos of Pavarotti in concert. Read a review of Denyce Graves in Margaret Garner. Michigan Opera Theatre’s Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library goes live online for the very first time this month, opening nearly 40 years of Michigan Opera Theatre history to the general public. This custom, state-of-the-art online database, created through a partnership with Wayne State University’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), includes a complete performance history and a catalogue of thousands of unique items, including scores, books, CDs, videos, reviews, and many unique items from MOT productions. Click here to visit MOT’s online database archive.
“What an incredible opportunity to open MOT history to the world through this state-of-the-art online database and our partnership with Wayne State’s School of Library and Information Science,” says MOT Archivist Tim Lentz. “We hope this will be a model for other arts organizations to follow around the country.”
MOT began work on the Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library in 2006 after receiving a $1 million grant in start-up funds from Maggie and Bob Allesee, which began the transformation for the physical library’s structure and helped build its technological resources. Also in 2006, Michigan Opera Theatre began a partnership with SLIS as part of an Institute of Library and Museum Services Grant titled, "Educating the 21st Century Fine and Performing Arts Librarian." The grant allowed students in the Master’s Degree program in SLIS to gain experience while developing the library and online archive for MOT, both helping to preserve a piece of Michigan’s cultural history and provide experience to the next generation of information professionals.
The partnership between Wayne State’s SLIS and MOT provided many of the resources for the library that would otherwise not be available to MOT, including hosting the site on their servers. The MOT library strives to be a model for how small libraries can undertake large digitization and database projects by partnering with larger institutions and utilizing free or low-cost software.
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