Gun Román. Dans and Cicus Asademy

Catalogue the Jan Zetterberg Collection at the University of Dance and Circus

2010-2012

The project's aim was to catalogue the Jan Zetterberg Collection at the University of Dance and Circus. The collection will serve as a source of inspiration and be accessible to all interested in reading, writing or researching into/in/on dance. The collection will contribute to a developed level of knowledge for higher education and research in dance. The collection is of special importance in relation to DOCH's focus on artistic development, research education and research.
The University of Dance and Circus is the only Artistic Higher Education for dance and circus in Sweden and we respond to the society's need for research in and about dance and circus, within the arts as well as scholarly research. To succeed in doing this, we collaborate with both national and international higher education institutions and art and science organizations. Dance is a strong art form, but has few institutions for education and few researchers. Our history and tradition must become visible and accessible for the world around us. With the help of the book collection of Jan Zetterberg we make this possible. In the collection there are several unique books. The Zetterberg Collection is of substantial value for our cultivation and education in the field of dance history as well as for our understanding of the contemporary art scene. Jan Zetterberg took special interest in the origin of modern dance and its development in relation to contemporary theatre and society. The collection contains several books on the new-borne interest in the body at the turn of the century, year 1900. This focus on the body and its health is also visible in the early gymnastics and in the early modern dance with its center in Central Europe and Germany. Another period that is well represented in the collection is the 1960ties to 1990ties with the post-modern dance, focused on the United States, France and Germany. Ballet, of course, is well represented from early 1900 and forwards. The collection also includes other genres and styles, among others oriental and eastern dance. Jan Zetterberg also had a strong interest in Folk dance and its relation to the education of people. The collection contains 1.200 registered titles in several languages, of big interest to students, teachers, researchers and other people with interest in dance - at DOCH as well as other universities and higher education colleges. The DOCH library collaborates with leading libraries in the same branch and has, as the only library in Sweden, special data bases for literature and film about dance and circus. The library works strategically to be able to support artistic and scholarly research in the field.
In 2008 DOCH inaugurated a project "The Art of Dance as Literature. Dance - A reinforcement of its artistic and scientific possibilities for development and research", that aimed at collecting funds for the acquisition of the unique book collection, which the deceased founder of Dansens Hus, dancer, director and choreographer Jan Zetterberg, had collected during his lifetime. In 2009 DOCH received grants from The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, Kungliga Patriotiska Sällskapet and the Carina Ari Memorial Foundation, which made it possible to buy the collection. There was an interest in that the collection was catalogued and made available for national and international interlibrary loans. To make this possible the collection had to catalogue in LIBRIS. In 2010 DOCH received an infrastructure support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond to catalogue the collection.
To be able to make room for the collection the library had to rearrange and thin out books. During 2010 we looked through the status of the collection and decided which books that would only be available as reference only. In 2011 and 2012 a librarian had a project engagement and in periods worked with cataloguing in LIBRIS, labeling, and thinning out in the ordinary collection of the library. It has been very valuable to have a librarian who knows dance to do this work and we choose to use the main part of the grant on her wages. She has worked very efficient and competent and as a result the work did not need all the time we had estimated. The collection contains books in several languages, so we employed a consultant to help the librarian when registering the Russian Books. Some of the older material was damaged and have been repaired and rebinded by a professional bookbinder. In the library there is information about the collection and a complete list of registered titles. The main part of the collection is integrated in DOCHs library. Added to this there is registered and unregistered material in a small room connected to the library. In this room there is also a separate place of work.
The Zetterberg collection was officially opened on April 20th 2012. The Vice-Chancellor Efva Lilja greeted people welcome, the project leader Gun Román told about the project and the collection and Kathleen Quinlan Zetterberg opened the collection by cutting ribbons. The collection was shown by senior lecturer Anna Karin Ståhle and DOCHs librarian Åsa Teglund, who also showed how you reach the collection in LIBRIS. The opening was announced on DOCHs home page and special invitations were sent to contributors, higher educations and universities.
Through this project we have supplied the art of dance with a selected collection of books of big importance to research in dance, art, body and society. Parts of the collection have been on interlibrary loans to Princeton University and in the autumn of 2012 a PhD- candidate from Columbia University have looked at the collection and will return next year for more thorough studies. It has made clear to us that there are few libraries in the world that have this specialized literature collected in one place. Teachers at DOCH use part of the literature in courses and also introduce the students to special literature. Information about the Zetterberg Collection is found at: www.doch.se/bibliotek