Slowly the theatre is coming to terms with the computer – not only in practical matters ranging from lighting control to ticket sales, but also in the collection and collation of the material which is the concern of the theatre student and scholar. Ian Herbert, whose own editorial work on Who's Who in the Theatre was largely assisted by lots of box-files and strong coffee, has converted the production of his invaluable London Theatre Record, now into its fifth year, to a computer-based system, and has recently been appointed to a fellowship at the City University to investigate the use of computerized databases for the theatre. In this capacity he helped to organize a conference held at the University in the summer of 1985, which brought together many theatre people with experience of using computers: in the following article he summarizes some of their contributions, and the conclusions of the conference.