Project Patron: exploiting a digital library for the performing arts

The School of Performing Arts at the University of Surrey, UK, draws on the resources of the Library for material such as recordings of music, dance video, music scores and dance notation. Project PATRON (Performing Arts Teaching Resources ONline) has been designed to deliver digital audio, video, music scores and dance notation across a high speed network to the desktop. Patron provides a rich digital library resource of audio, video, images and text. It can be used in a similar way to a conventional library in that items can be searched for and retrieved, but it also enables the resource to be used in a variety of contextual situations. Appropriate multi-media tools within a web browser environment are provided to integrate different media and to enable a range of users to put them into context. The resource formats, system architecture, document structures such as HTML, and the integration with an authoring and management package are described