From: "Williams, Pauline" <Williamp_at_montevallo.edu>
I would like to thank each of you who responded to my question (see below).
I appreciate your comments and thoughtful responses. We plan to survey our
faculty to see what equipment is currently available on campus. Pending the
results of this survey, I expect we will change our policy to purchase DVDs
unless the title is available only in video.
Pauline C. Williams
Collection Development Librarian
Carmichael Library, University of Montevallo
Montevallo, AL 35115-6105
williamp_at_montevallo.edu
205-665-6105 (office) 205-665-6112 (fax)
Question:
I would like to hear from other libraries about their Collection Development
Policies/Practices in relation to Videos and DVD's. At present we are
collecting videos because we have not yet purchased DVD playing equipment.
Recently, we have had a few faculty requests for DVD's. Some of these titles
are only available in DVD format. With the market apparently becoming so
saturated with DVD's, it may be time for us to reconsider our policy.
Responses & Summaries
More than 20 people responded to my query. Five have no written policy and
four do not yet collect DVD's. Fifteen collect DVD's to varying degrees.
Some of the comments are as follows.
* Library does not have equipment, but some classrooms do; the library
buys DVD's
* More flexible in freezing frames and quality of picture and sound is
better
* Will monitor in 2002 before buying DVD players although library has
some equipment with DVD playing capability
* Last summer, purchased equipment, now prefer DVD & only buy VHS if
DVD is not available
* Considering starting a video collection... [will probably start]
with DVDs and not even bother with VHS... going into a new building with new
computers and they will all have CD/CD-R/CD-RW/DVD players.
* From a policy standpoint, it may be worthwhile to purchase a DVD
[player] if your institution is also a federal depository library. The
Government Printing Office has specified in its most recent Technical
Specifications policy
(http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/computers/mtr.html) that a DVD
player is needed. The Census Bureau is now distributing 2000 Census results
in that format! As for a policy on purchasing DVDs themselves, we don't have
any just yet.
* [Recently] started buying a few DVD's for feature films requested by
our theatre department for film classes... The faculty liked having all the
extra material included on the DVD's... They are housed in a public area
with a security system in place...
* Ask [requestor] their preferred format if both are available. Since
fewer educational films are available in DVD format at present the
collection will probably remain [mixed, i.e. DVD/VHS] for awhile. We
circulate [both] a week.
* We book them in advance if they are needed for a class presentation.
Videos only circulate to faculty, we have used the DVD's a trial medium for
circulation to students.
* We recently tackled this issue too, and developed a policy this
fall. ...We decided to fully support video DVD's and treat them like VHS as
far as cataloging and shelving are concerned.
* We also support text/data DVD's (and actually already have quite a
few because of government documents) and treat them similarly to cd roms.
We have purchased mainly region 1 DVD players, which support U.S. and North
American titles... We also purchased one region free player, since we
expect to have some requests for DVD's which haven't yet been released here
(we're thinking of them in a similar way to the PAL VHS format)... We are
not supporting DVD audio at this point, as it doesn't seem to be moving
along at the same pace as video.
* We began buying DVDs this year - had to because, as you said, the
market is becoming saturated, and the faculty had been asking for them. We
bought cases for them, the kind that require the circulation desk to have an
unlocking device when the DVD is checked out - we hope it will keep the DVDs
from being pocketed up in the stacks! Also, we've purchased a couple DVD
players (they've come down considerably in price), one to loan and one to
use in Cataloging.
* We have been buying DVDs in preference to videos recently. The
quality of picture and sound is much better, and we will not, we hope, have
the same problems of damage and wear that we have with videos.
* We have not bought a special separate DVD player, but we have a
couple machines with capacity to play DVD. We will monitor the usage/demands
during 2002, then we should buy dedicated equipment for DVD. You are right,
some resources are available only in DVD format.
* Just purchased a DVD for our Spanish collection as the video was
unavailable. First I made sure that we have a DVD player on campus (we have
one) and that there is interest in moving in this direction (there is
lots!). While I don't foresee us weeding out our video collection for a very
long time, we will probably start to purchase DVDs. ...Will be purchasing
more DVD players and many of our students have DVD drives on their
computers, so it's definitely the direction of the future. Personally, we
just bought a combined DVD/Video player at Costco for $270; while we had
been hesitant to buy a DVD player, the ability to use both forms of media
was incredibly appealing. It's a simple plug & play machine and we found out
that DVDs contain much more than just the film.
* Wish I had opted for DVD [earlier]... because of all the added value
features DVD offers. It is not so much the better viewing quality ... It is
the translation capability (which is useful to our foreign students and
those English speakers taking foreign languages), and, more importantly, the
DVD's fascinating behind-the-scenes information that makes DVD's the better
choice. My rationale for VHS over DVD in the past was that our "poor"
students only had VHS and thus I was doing them a disservice by getting DVD.
Most of our students (at a state supported university) now have DVD's or
plan to get them. Two other reasons I went with VHS is that our classrooms
are not set up for DVD viewing nor was I sure DVD format was here to stay...
Now I will ... opt for DVD.
* We used to purchase only videos as the library only had a VCR. Our
logic was that we would purchase only resources that could be used in the
library ... Then we purchased a DVD player, so now we also purchase DVDs.
We recently purchased some music DVDs because ... the sound was much better,
clearer, better quality, etc., than the video format. Currently we purchase
in both formats. ... More people have VCRs now than DVD players, but it is
gradually changing.
* We favour buying DVDs. I fear that VHS will go the way of
8-tracks... The shift at retailers like Blockbuster is a clear indication of
things to come. DVD players are now just about as cheap as VCRs and DVDs
are as cheap as VHS tapes. Students generally prefer digital media to
analog ... DVDs store better (smaller) than VHS. They are more stable: no
worries about broken or stretched tape; tapes caught in the player; movies
being accidentally taped over by users, or the desensitizer at circulation
erasing information on the tape. DVDs provide better picture and sound...
On a Shakespeare DVD, for instance, one can use the menu to go directly to a
particular act or scene. On VHS it is hit and miss when trying to find
information.
* It would certainly be far better to have playing equipment on site
before you get DVD's. However, if the equipment is available elsewhere on
campus you'd probably better bow to the demand and start buying them. It's
not an ideal policy, but at least you've begun what I believe is an
inevitable transition. Be sure to tell the faculty members ordering the
titles that they can't (for the time being) be played in the library. Then
put DVD players are at the top of your next equipment request list.
* My daughter, who is a college student, considers VHS to be
absolutely antediluvian. She will no longer consider any format other than
DVD, and from what I've seen, DVD does offer the ability to provide many
features that will be attractive to educators.
* We are buying the DVD version, if there is a choice. The features
of a DVD (subtitles, non-linear movement through the content) and the
falling price of players make DVD very attractive... I asked at my local
Blockbuster store if that was true [about damage] and they said that there
was some problem with DVD damage. The entire disk was usually tossed if
badly scratched, where VHS could be spliced as a fix. The library practice
here is pushing the campus' move to DVD. Both formats will co-exist for
many years, because there are more than 10k VHS tape in the library and many
hundreds more in dept collections.
* We are now trying to purchase DVD's only [unless the title is
available only in VHS]. We have been building our DVD collection for just
over a year... As far as equipment is concerned ... we now have five working
DVD players... We have had only a few problems with the more popular titles
circulating and coming back scratched (about 5), so we now purchase two
copies, one for in-library use only and another that will circulate for
potentially popular titles. We don't yet have a written policy...
Received on Tue Dec 11 2001 - 09:24:00 EST