LibCrowds

We try to keep the tutorials on each task updated, but sometimes it's useful to have space to explain things in more detail.

I've noticed a few people mentioning sheets with multiple dates listed per performance. In these cases, just type in the date for the first performance. For now, _____WB$wombat$check$this$function_____(this) should be enough for people to find the performances. If there was demand for it in future, we could make a separate task for noting and transcribing repeat performances.

Michael H asked 'Is there a way of rotating the selection box as the playbill is skewed making horizontal selections uneven?', with reference to http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589076.0x000002#?cv=167&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-682%2C97%2C4336%2C3635

Unfortunately there's not - we tried to build it in but it made the 'marking a rectangle' experience really complicated. It's ok if the marked regions don't quite match up with the text - with enough records, small quirks don't matter as much.

Copying a question and answer from another post so it's all in one place:

This is a question about transcription of titles. (1) Do I include the final full point after the title? and (2) If the title is given on the playbill in caps, do I transcribe it as caps?

My answer: You don't need to include the final full stop after a title (as it is 'cleaned' up to help match across different people's typing).

You don't need to type in caps, even if the title is in caps. We tend to use 'title case', in which major words are capitalised but minor ones (the, a, of, and, etc) are not.

Glenn S asked, 'Libertine is listed as an Opera. Was it a mistake to mark it?' (http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589076.0x000002#?cv=182&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-329%2C1835%2C3003%2C2518 )

My answer - not at all! Please mark up operas.

We've had long debates about what counts as a 'performance', and the rough rule of thumb is that full-length works always count, so operas are in, but that individual songs or dances don't. We also tend to include extracts of plays if it's an entire act but not if it's just scenes from a play, but it's not a hard and fast rule. More data certainly doesn't break anything.

mia Often the "The", as in "The Merchant of Venice", or "The Rivals" is in lower case and at the end of the line above, rather than in the larger font of the title. I have been including it, as the title seems incomplete without it. Is this OK?
Also, "Or," is nearly always capitalised, when "or" seems more natural. Does this matter?
Thanks

mia That's useful and reassuring that I haven't been messing up!

mia Any guidance appreciated: Where the evening's entertainment consists of, say, an impressionist, someone balancing chairs on their head, "Mr Williams and his dogs" etc, I've been marking them as "Not a playbill" since there's no play/opera/burletta as such.

Is that the recommended action?

@mia I take it there's a known issue with adding tags at the moment? Sometimes I get a popup message when adding tags to that effect.

Should we continue tagging? When adding the same tag to multiple playbills, however I select the existing tag off the drop-down list it's created a duplicate each time (I have only been adding one tag 'ramo-samee' who was a famous Indian juggler).

@graemeandrew great questions again! The tag function was added just before our developer left, and we thought it was better to have something than hold it back until we have someone in post to finish it perfectly (as these things can sometimes take longer than you'd think). What does the pop-up message say?

The short answer is, we'll be able to sort through the duplicate tags later, so it's still worth adding them.

'Not a playbill' is for blank sheets or the occasional other sheet that's been digitised as part of the volume. If there's not a 'not a performance' option then we should add it! After talking to scholars about it, we haven't worried too much if performances that aren't strictly plays are included, as we'll probably do a quick classification task at some point to sort them out.

That clears it up perfectly, thanks @mia

Attached should be the error message. To reproduce:
- type 'elephant' into the tag field
- scroll down to one of the entries for elephant that appear in the drop-down tag list and press Enter
- the tag field now shows two elephant tags (highlighted in green)
- delete the first of the two tags (if you delete the second tag the error does not appear, but a duplicate tag is still created)

graemeandrew Thank you for putting that together! I've put it in a github issue so it doesn't get lost - https://github.com/LibCrowds/libcrowds/issues/839

Hopefully this is a rarity but what's the best way to deal with marking a title that is split across two pages? I was faced with this situation for 'Harlequin and the Royal Ram; or the Brazen Dragon' on one of the Old Vic playbills: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589022.0x000002#?cv=79

In this instance I marked both sections to ensure they can be transcribed but wasn't sure if this was the best approach.

Frisby gosh, that's an unlikely situation! I haven't seen one like that before (not that I've seen everything, obviously!).

With your solution the text will be searchable, which is the main thing. I can see that a split title would baffle someone looking to match titles to known works (like @beeashlell 's work) but that can't be helped.

Marking titles: I am seeing a few of these where the bill covers different performances on different nights. The guide says to ignore future performances, so should we just mark the first one, here Rob Roy, and not mark Guy Mannering? This is clear when future shows are relegated to a note at the bottom of the bill, but here they are of equal weight. Does the recording of dates allow for only one date per bill? Thanks in advance.

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589022.0x000002#?cv=349

Hi @johnjo - thanks for asking! I suppose it's the exceptions that make it interesting, but they can also be awkward to deal with!

The original tasks assumed that recording one date per playbill would allow for a reasonable representation of upcoming performances, so for now we'd best stick to that and just record the next upcoming date's performances. Does that sound reasonable?

If there's a lot of playbills like this we could set up a special 'weekly listings' task or find some other way of dealing with their more complex requirements.

I have just been recording the immediate upcoming date, and usually there isn't a problem. I will stick to that, even if another night is featured equally on the same bill with a different programme. I've only seen this on the Royal Vic/Coburg bills.
I didn't make a note, but there was one bill where the main play (P1) is on all week, followed by P2 on Mon and Sat, P3 on Tues, P4 on Wed and Fri, and P5 on Thurs, ie, the same starting play every night, but with another four to follow during the week, either once or twice. My head hurts thinking about it! I just left that one and went on to the next.

In case you missed it at the time, @beeashlell 's post on 'Parts of a Playbill' is a great overview: https://community.libcrowds.com/d/47-parts-of-a-playbill

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