BSO.ORG UNVEILS TWO NEW ONLINE ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
THE BSO'S COMPLETE PERFORMANCE HISTORY IS NOW FULLY ACCESSIBLE VIA "HENRY," A NEW PERFORMANCE SEARCH ENGINE AT ARCHIVES.BSO.ORG, NAMED AFTER THE ORCHESTRA'S FOUNDER HENRY LEE HIGGINSON

"HENRY"-THE FIRST FULLY INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE HISTORY AND PROGRAM BOOK ARCHIVAL SEARCH ENGINE-HAS BEEN BUILT USING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT INVITES OTHER ORCHESTRAS TO REPLICATE THE PROGRAM FREE OF CHARGE

BSO IS FIRST MAJOR ORCHESTRA TO OFFER ONLINE VISITORS ACCESS TO A COMPLETE SET OF SCANNED PROGRAM BOOKS FROM THE ORCHESTRA'S 133-YEAR HISTORY AT COLLECTIONS.BSO.ORG

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced the launch of two new bso.org online archival resources, offering BSO fans access to details of the orchestra's complete performance history starting with the ensemble's first concert on October 21, 1881 and continuing through the current 2013-14 season. The BSO is the first major orchestra to offer online visitors access to a complete set of scanned program books from the orchestra's 133-year history-with links to free downloadable PDF versions of the entire collection-available now at collections.bso.org. In addition, the BSO's complete concert history is now fully searchable via "HENRY," a new performance history search engine available at archives.bso.org, named after the orchestra's founder Henry Lee Higginson.

The BSO's new search function, HENRY at archives.bso.org, and the comprehensive program book materials currently available at collections.bso.org, represent only the first steps of an ongoing project to create a comprehensive online collection that more fully represents the orchestra's illustrious history. In addition to the archival materials already available, the BSO will eventually feature correspondence, news clippings, photographs, audio files, and video highlights of performances and other special events.

"The Boston Symphony Orchestra's new online archive represents a big step towards preserving and sharing the ensemble's illustrious performance history going back to its founding in 1881," said Mark Volpe, BSO Managing Director. "We're proud to be the first orchestra to make its entire program book collection available online, and we look forward to adding a wide spectrum of materials that will shed light on the storied history behind the making of one of the world's greatest orchestras. We're also thrilled that the BSO's new search engine, with software created by Adage Technologies, has the potential to benefit the entire industry by allowing other orchestras to replicate the search function on their own websites free of charge."

 

 

SEARCH ENGINE TECHNOLOGY'S POTENTIAL BENEFIT TO OTHER ORCHESTRAS AND PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATIONS
In an effort that has the potential to benefit the entire orchestra industry, the BSO's online search engine-made possible through an innovative performance history search engine designed for the BSO by Adage Technologies-uses open source software that allows other orchestras to replicate the search function on their own websites free of charge. The source code for this new technology will soon be released via GitHub, a popular source code repository.

In an effort to facilitate a broad distribution of this technology, the BSO will host a free webinar in September providing instruction for other orchestras on how to implement this code on their own. The BSO archives staff will also provide demonstrations at various conferences during the year, including those hosted by the Society of American Archivists and the Music Library Association.

 

 

MORE ON THE SEARCH ENGINE "HENRY" AND ARCHIVES.BSO.ORG
The first thing visitors will encounter when visiting archives.bso.orgis the BSO's new performance history search engine, HENRY, named after the BSO's founder Henry Lee Higginson. The new archival search engine enables visitors to access detailed records and original source material for well over 18,000 concerts, mainly focusing on the BSO, but also including some program information relating to performances by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Boston Pops.

 

 

MORE ON THE COMPLETE PROGRAM BOOK COLLECTION AT COLLECTIONS.BSO.ORG
The complete Boston Symphony Orchestra program book collection is now available at the collections.bso.org. This new archival resource includes details from 7,500 program books representing more than 17,000 BSO concerts over the orchestra's 133-year history. In addition to programs from the BSO concerts at Symphony Hall in Boston, the archive also includes program details from 130 tour performances from 1889 to 1975 and the BSO's concert season at Tanglewood from 1946 to 2010, with ever-expanding details to be available relating to the Boston Pops, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Tanglewood Music Center performances.

 

 

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHIVES.BSO.ORG AND COLLECTIONS.BSO.ORG
The archival search engine HENRY at archives.bso.org and the complete program book collection at collections.bso.org are complimentary archival resources. Search queries on HENRY summon targeted portions of orchestra's entire concert history which is then easily sorted by performance, artist, or repertoire, with additional sophisticated filters including date, arranger, venue, and geographic location. These search results also link to the freely downloadable PDF program books available at collections.bso.org. Search results from HENRY may also be downloaded as Excel files.

Behind-the-scenes, HENRY was paired with collections.bso.org through OPAS, the industry-standard management software that tracks all details associated with an orchestra's performance history. HENRY is the first-ever fully integrated performance history and program book software built using OPAS.

 

 

THE SLOAN FOUNDATION, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, AND INTERNET ARCHIVE SUPPORTCOLLECTIONS.BSO.ORG AND ARCHIVES.BSO.ORG
The Sloan Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided funding for the development of HENRY, scanning and all other costs associated with the creation of the BSO's digital program book collection. The materials were scanned by the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library located at www.archive.org. In exchange for scanning the complete BSO program book collection, the Internet Archive became a secondary repository for these materials. The BSO's new Online Archive is hosted via an archival web service called CONTENTdm, a product of OCLC. Through its partner, WorldCat, CONTENTdm shares the metadata from the BSO's archives with over 71,000 libraries in 112 countries, as well as with Google and other popular search websites.