Collection Paragraphs
Collection Development
Showgirls Collection documents the unique history of the Las Vegas entertainment industry. Many artists and entrepreneurs were influential in the birth of a Las Vegas icon: the showgirl. Showgirls Collection features unique materials relating to costume design and theatrical production associated with Las Vegas shows and performers. The collection features design sketches and photographic prints about various productions and the theatrical artists who created them: including producers, dancers, and choreographers. There are items selected from seven collections: the Donn Arden Collection, the Las Vegas Show Costumes Design Collection, the Las Vegas News Bureau Collection, the Jean Devlyn Design Scrapbook, the Harold Minsky Collection, the Sands Hotel Collection, and the José Luis Viñas Collection. All collections are housed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Special Collections at the University Libraries.
Digitization
The selection and initial description of the material was performed by Peter Michel, Director of Special Collections. After the images were selected and described, they were scanned using a either the Contex Magnum XL 54 oversize scanner with EasyScan 7.1 scanning software or the AGFA Duoscan T 1200 scanner with AGFA FotoLook 32 V3.60.0 scanning software. The high-resolution (300 dpi, 24-bit) uncompressed TIFF image files were then converted into the JPEG2000 format. Master images (high-resolution TIFF files) are archived in the Web and Digitization Unit of the Libraries.
Once the digital images were created, the collection was built using CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software. Dublin Core metadata was created for each item and entered into the database. To increase successful resource discovery, research was done by indexers and a variety of access points were included in the project metadata: “Photographer/Creator,” “Casino/nightclub show played at,” “Original date,” “Producer of show,” “Name of show,” “Name of dancer,” and “Medium of work.” “Subject” terms were chosen by using controlled vocabulary from the Library of Congress' Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms and the Library of Congress' Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristics.
Peter Michel provided a narrative structure for the website and contributed text and scholarly content for the each of the subject pages.
Acknowledgements
- Collection Development: Peter Michel, Director of Special Collections
- Metadata Consultant: Kathy Rankin, Special Collections Cataloger
Project Team:
- Cory Lampert, Digitization Projects Librarian
- Annie Sattler, Digitization Technician/Indexer
- Brian Egan, Graphics/Multimedia Designer
- John Fox, Information Systems Specialist
- Kee Choi, Web Technical Support Manager
- Michael Yunkin, Web Content/Metadata Manager
- Hong Zhang, Application Developer
Copyright
Not to be reproduced without permission. To purchase copies of images and/or for copyright information, contact University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries, Special Collections. Showgirls is published by University of Nevada Las Vegas, University Libraries, October 2006.