ResearchBuzz

I covered this back in April 2005 when it was just about to launch, but according to an article at ENN there is now a phase three, and there’s a lot more information available. The Irish Playography, at http://www.irishplayography.com/, describes itself as “a comprehensive database of all Irish plays produced professionally since 1904.”

The simple search allows you to search by play title or author. The advanced search adds all kinds of variables, like the year the play was first produced, cast size, play type, subject matter, and theme. You may also restrict your search to downloadable or published scripts.

I did a theme search for plays about “Community” and got 89 results, from “3 a.m.” to “Wild Harvest.” Search results include title of play and author; a small icon beside play title denotes a purchasable/downloadable script. Play details include a summary, play type, cast size (male and female) date of first production, original cast, and production crew. (Some play listings have much more detail than others.) A separate page links to information about rights and contact information for play authors/rights holders.

There’s information on over a hundred years’ worth of plays here, a vast database, with a lot of details. I was pleased with how the information was organized and how quickly the search results were presented. If you’re interested in Irish plays or you’re looking for a production, a nice and very extensive place to start.

The official Google blog recently announced a slant of Google Books that’s focused on Shakespeare. The front page of the site has the Bard’s works divided into several tabs, including comedy, tragedy, romance, and history. I picked one (Julius Caesar, the only Shakespeare play I know from a hole in the ground) and was taken to a standard Google Books page featuring a public-domain version of the play.

The bummer is that the site is apparently all about browsing, and I wanted to pick lines and then scan Google books and see where they turned up. I grabbed a line from JC that I like: “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power;” and plugged that into Google’s full book search.

While I like JC by itself, I thought the results from this quote search were also interesting; it brought over 80 results from Google’s book searching, including a philosophy book from 1992, a Shakespearean dictionary from 1832 written by Thomas Dolby (!!), and The Gentleman’s Magazine, from 1907.

All these different perspectives with commentary about Brutus, about what quotes from JC were considered important, what they say and don’t say, add another layer to Shakespeare. Wouldn’t it be cool if Google set up this fakey Technorati-type interface, and did “backtracks” of Google books and which Shakespeare plays they quoted from? You could enter a quote, for example, Google could see what play it came from, then you’d get this search result with the main “Shakespeare blog” at the top of the page and then all the Google books that use that particular quote. Instant Shakeosphere.

The LOC has announced a new online collection of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy called, strangely enough, “Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy.” It’s available at http://international.loc.gov/intldl/apochtml/apochome.html. .

The collection features over 350 calligraphy sheets that span the 9th to the 19th centuries. There’s also additional information including essays on calligraphic styles.

You can search the collection by keyword or browse by title, subject, or calligrapher. A search for poem found 40 results, ranging from “New Year’s (Noruz) poem” to “Illuminated first page / identification note of the Farhang-i Jahangiri”. Descriptions are extensive and when appropriate there are translations available. I just wish that the thumbnails were larger; these pieces are too detailed for small thumbnails.