So Many Playbills, So Little Time: A Case Study in Fugitive Theatrical Material

In 1936, not so far removed from the advent of theatre librarianship, George Freedley wrote that “[f]or the director of a theatre collection the chief problem is to develop a technique for housing and cataloguing…fugitive material,” which he described as “a mass…of indefinite value, irregular size, and often not originally intended for permanent use.” 1 Things haven’t changed much. Playbills, programs, sheet music, publicity photographs and like material continue to make up a large percentage of patron use at performing arts collections. The issues of irregular size, fragile condition, and quantity continue to make bibliographic control of them elusive. Multiple articles . . .