Libraries and DVDs
04-10-05, 08:02 PM
#26
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The requesting system many of you have taken advantage of to get videos or any other materials from other libraries isfantastic. It is also tremendously expensive. If a particular title has been requested by a particular library on average about 4-5 times, it would have been less expensive for the library system to have ordered, processed, and cataloged it themselves.
Rhonda Storms is trying to get her name in the paper. Of a $560,000 budget for media materials, $400,000 is spent on children's and educational materials. The children's materials will be checked out, repeatedly. The educational materials, not so much. Popular entertainment titles - such as Vera Drake and Silver City and Cellular (titles available now - see http://hcplc.org/ for more) generate library use, and are shelved alongside Free at Last - civil rights heroes and the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.
Tax dollars are very rarely wasted in the public library. The service offered and the popularity of hese media materials attests to their value not only to library users, but to the community. The great value of the public library is the problem - stealing profits away from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Borders and Barnes & Noble aren't thrilled at the tremendous accessability of best-sellers there either. But these serve a public and community good - promoting literacy and pemitting culture into the hands and minds of all residents.
When the public library requests a tax initiative, I always vote for it. When a librarian recommends a title, it means more to me than any critic or cultural figure's ponificating. Libraries and librarians serve the public good. By opposing them, Rhonda Storms is serving a very different master.
Jakisiñkama.
Rhonda Storms is trying to get her name in the paper. Of a $560,000 budget for media materials, $400,000 is spent on children's and educational materials. The children's materials will be checked out, repeatedly. The educational materials, not so much. Popular entertainment titles - such as Vera Drake and Silver City and Cellular (titles available now - see http://hcplc.org/ for more) generate library use, and are shelved alongside Free at Last - civil rights heroes and the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.
Tax dollars are very rarely wasted in the public library. The service offered and the popularity of hese media materials attests to their value not only to library users, but to the community. The great value of the public library is the problem - stealing profits away from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Borders and Barnes & Noble aren't thrilled at the tremendous accessability of best-sellers there either. But these serve a public and community good - promoting literacy and pemitting culture into the hands and minds of all residents.
When the public library requests a tax initiative, I always vote for it. When a librarian recommends a title, it means more to me than any critic or cultural figure's ponificating. Libraries and librarians serve the public good. By opposing them, Rhonda Storms is serving a very different master.
Jakisiñkama.
04-10-05, 09:12 PM
#27
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This is in my county as well. I know I'm just reiterating what most here have said, but it's not a good idea to remove DVDs that aren't strictly PBS material or those in the same ball park from library shelves. Ronda Storms gets the 
on this one.
on this one.
Last edited by DVDho78DTS; 04-10-05 at 09:15 PM.
04-11-05, 05:54 PM
#28
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FYI, there are three levels of requesting at my local library system.
1. Since they are a multi-branch library for the entire metropolitan area, they have a computer system to request titles from any of the branches, or to be put on a waiting list if all copies are checked out.
2. If they don't have the title, I can also request that they purchase it, although I don't know if they order a title with just one request, or if they want a few before they will order it.
3. Finally, they can request materials from other libraries (anywhere in the US,) in an Inter-Library Loan. I would think that this is what docF94 is talking about.
My library system is pretty much self-supporting, AFAIK, due to fines for overdue material and their HUGE book sale every year (donated items, worn out books, thinning out multiple copies when they aren't in demand, etc.)
The 2003 book sale alone made over $213,000.00. There is also an Endowment Trust that has a large list of donors, although I don't know how much has been donated. The library system charges .50 cents per day for overdue videos, and .10 cents for everything else. It has 17 branches, and serves about 600,000 people.
1. Since they are a multi-branch library for the entire metropolitan area, they have a computer system to request titles from any of the branches, or to be put on a waiting list if all copies are checked out.
2. If they don't have the title, I can also request that they purchase it, although I don't know if they order a title with just one request, or if they want a few before they will order it.
3. Finally, they can request materials from other libraries (anywhere in the US,) in an Inter-Library Loan. I would think that this is what docF94 is talking about.
My library system is pretty much self-supporting, AFAIK, due to fines for overdue material and their HUGE book sale every year (donated items, worn out books, thinning out multiple copies when they aren't in demand, etc.)
The 2003 book sale alone made over $213,000.00. There is also an Endowment Trust that has a large list of donors, although I don't know how much has been donated. The library system charges .50 cents per day for overdue videos, and .10 cents for everything else. It has 17 branches, and serves about 600,000 people.
Last edited by littlefuzzy; 04-11-05 at 06:02 PM.
04-11-05, 06:12 PM
#29
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Are you in Wake County, Littlefuzzy?
I do love the book sale, we always go on Sunday and get 3 or 4 boxes. I didn't realize they pulled in that much from the booksale, esp. toward Sat and Sunday's prices.
I do love the book sale, we always go on Sunday and get 3 or 4 boxes. I didn't realize they pulled in that much from the booksale, esp. toward Sat and Sunday's prices.
