For the Zillionth Time
Here we go again, ad nauseam. My collection development policy for DVD's. The Library cannot spend its energy and its resources by concentrating on collecting current release movies. IT IS A BAD USE OF TAXPAYER MONEY! I hate to shout but let me repeat. I cannot use taxpayer money to compete with local business. That would be unethical.
Secondly there are limited funds available for DVD collection development and it would be gross negligence for me to concentrate on adding materials to the collection when they are available elsewhere in the community. Blockbuster does it better, they have a bigger budget, it's what they do. The Library is not a welfare DVD provider. We do not collect materials just for people that cannot afford Video Stores so spending taxpayer money to duplicate materials readily available elsewhere would be a waste of time and money!
Third the DVD collection is relatively small. I have a lot of catching up to do. Just this Christmas I discovered our lack of Christmas themed DVD's. I know many of you are salivating for Jessica Simpson in the Dukes of hazard but I need Scrooge, A Christmas Carol and Scrooged in the collection so even more than usual I will be concentrating on retrospective purchasing until I build up the core collection.
I have worked in Libraries with a two year rule. A general release movie had to be at least two years old before the Library would purchase a copy of it. Thankfully we do not have this rule and I do buy some new and recent movies. But I will do so only if they meet standard Library selection criteria. (ie top grossing, award winning, critically acclaimed etc.)
The DVD/Videocassette collection is unusual in that there are businesses that do exactly what a Library does. That is they build a collection and loan them out, but they are purely profit motivated while the Library collects materials for educational and historic purposes as well as recreation. Because of this the DVD/Videocassette collection will always be skewed more towards a "classic movie/educational" collection and less towards a high turnover popular collection.
Finally, this is the way I typically build Library collections. I start with building the 'core' collection and work my way forward. This way I learn a collection at the same time I build it. Only in this case building the 'core' collection is the primary goal in building the Library's DVD Collection. This is the best way the DVD collection can help the Rogers Public Library achieve its mission.
Secondly there are limited funds available for DVD collection development and it would be gross negligence for me to concentrate on adding materials to the collection when they are available elsewhere in the community. Blockbuster does it better, they have a bigger budget, it's what they do. The Library is not a welfare DVD provider. We do not collect materials just for people that cannot afford Video Stores so spending taxpayer money to duplicate materials readily available elsewhere would be a waste of time and money!
Third the DVD collection is relatively small. I have a lot of catching up to do. Just this Christmas I discovered our lack of Christmas themed DVD's. I know many of you are salivating for Jessica Simpson in the Dukes of hazard but I need Scrooge, A Christmas Carol and Scrooged in the collection so even more than usual I will be concentrating on retrospective purchasing until I build up the core collection.
I have worked in Libraries with a two year rule. A general release movie had to be at least two years old before the Library would purchase a copy of it. Thankfully we do not have this rule and I do buy some new and recent movies. But I will do so only if they meet standard Library selection criteria. (ie top grossing, award winning, critically acclaimed etc.)
The DVD/Videocassette collection is unusual in that there are businesses that do exactly what a Library does. That is they build a collection and loan them out, but they are purely profit motivated while the Library collects materials for educational and historic purposes as well as recreation. Because of this the DVD/Videocassette collection will always be skewed more towards a "classic movie/educational" collection and less towards a high turnover popular collection.
Finally, this is the way I typically build Library collections. I start with building the 'core' collection and work my way forward. This way I learn a collection at the same time I build it. Only in this case building the 'core' collection is the primary goal in building the Library's DVD Collection. This is the best way the DVD collection can help the Rogers Public Library achieve its mission.
posted by Rob Finch at 9:09 AM
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