OperaCat Action Plan 2014-2015

Charles Blair (CB)
John Jung (JJ)
Daniel Macchione (DM)

The following is from Scott Landvatter, Bibliographer for Music and Dance, University of Chicago Library.

After experimenting with the database, obtaining more information from CIAO, and meeting with Philip Gossett this morning, I agree that this is a source that should be stored and maintained by the library. To quickly summarize the purpose of OperaCat, the database verifies the existence of innumerable music manuscripts and autographs, along with many hundreds of letters. This verification of existence is accomplished by searching auction catalogs and the catalogs for rare book and music dealers. From examining rare music dealer catalogs for possible additions to the Chopin collection, I can concur with Philip that such catalogs are replete with information. Often this material, frequently supplied with with facsimiles, is sufficient to describe exactly what is being auctioned or sold, thus not requiring possession of the actual item itself.

This sort of research is far more important than it may seem initially. The high number of letters that have been discovered by OperaCat through these catalogs, for instance, has motivated the Fondazione Rossini Pesaro, publishers of the most extensive multi-volume collection of Rossini's correspondence, to create a final volume containing letters found after publication began. A significantly large amount of these 'newly found' letters result from the efforts of OperaCat scholars.

The discovery through the OperaCat method of examining auction and rare book and music catalogs has also confirmed the existence of manuscript sketch books and autograph fragments that have already influenced the critical notes and editorial commentary of such complete works editions as those for Rossini, Verdi, Donizzeti, and Bellini. … Thus, not only is my bibliographer approval given, but an endorsement as well, finding this to be a surprisingly worthy resource, especially when knowing that its contents will be freely available to anyone, just as is the case with our Chopin Early Editions resource.

In conclusion, I understand that Charles has laid forth realistic policies that will be observed when OperaCat is transferred to the library:

a) we cannot prioritize OperaCat in the queue ahead of any prior commitments
b) we cannot commit to updating the content ourselves;
       i) we can only commit to loading new content
      ii) if new content ceases to be created at some future point,
          we will maintain OperaCat as a static website indefinitely
c) DLDC will make all final decisions regarding underlying
   technology used to support the site

OperaCat is currently hosted by the Humanities Division. OperaCat will launch on a Library-hosted website in early 2015, at which time the Humanities website will be pointed to the Library's website.

There are currently over 5000 entries in OperaCat, with two or three thousand more to be added. At launch, the number of entries will be cut back to 4000. These will have been edited into their final form by DM and Philip Gossett.

Copy all files to a Library location (CB)
Port the back end from eXist to MarkLogic (CB)
Provide input on functionality, and look and feel (DM)
Adapt the PHP front end for use with MarkLogic (JJ)
Groom the front end for functionality, and look and feel (JJ)

CB and DM will arrange a workflow for adding new records. This takes the form of loading one file of XML data. DM will coordinate the announcement of the launch.