Dave Lewis & Staci Ross | LIS 2407 | Summer 2017
The collection focuses on items related to long-running TV series RuPaul's Drag Race (RPDR). There is ample fan material on the web, commercial material available from the show, and academic research on drag and drag shows. However, to our knowledge no institution is collecting or making that material searchable for scholarship and teaching. As a pop-culture icon, the absence of an archive to RuPaul is puzzling. This collection is best suited to an institution with a large body of pop-culture items. The resource could be of use to researchers, instructors, and students in women's, gender, and sexuality studies programs, as well as anthropology, sociology, and media studies.
Important metadata will include standard title and attribution elements. Queens will be identified by applicable name authorities, while the curators will create a RPDR-specific list of drag queen or host names. Users will discover and understand the materials through a webspace powered by Omeka or a similar tool that will allow for searching, browsing, and discovery-level display. As curators of this collection, we need to know basic concepts of the show, key queens and contestants, and potential key words and the kinds of information our users will need to search for and discover items in the collection.