The SHCDA contains contemporary public poetry readings staged in Ireland, as well as readings overseas that involve Irish participants. It conserves prose and music as they occur at these readings, as well as accompanying speech acts -- such as introductions and Q&A sessions. Currently, there are over 2000 tracks within the archive
Metadata collected on each recording is displayed on individual Track File pages, complete with contextualizing performance memorabilia and photographs. Annotations on the event are also provided on the Track File pages, as well as a link to all tracks within the overall event.
In addition to user-initiated searches, browse categories will assist in locating materials. The categories include 'author', 'performer', genres of performance (poems, prose, introductions, etc.), as well as 'publisher', 'venue', 'event', 'language' and 'translator'. The browse category UTR (Uncollected at Time of Recording) will enable researchers to identify those compositions performed before inclusion in (or exclusion from) a single-author collection.
Please note: Transcriptions of performed works are not provided. This honours agreements with publishers and maintains an emphasis on the performative aspects of the creative compositions.