I was cruising my local library when I discovered about 10 Archive titles, among them A Stolen Life, Abe Lincoln in Illinois and The Outfit! Anyone else experience this phenomenon at their local branch?

I just discovered I could rent books and movies online and download them to my PC, kindle, iPod, iPad, etc. It's not Archive stuff but it's a new world for me. Now I just need a library card.

I feel as though I saw that at me library, but I might just have been amazed at all the free stuff.

I haven't come across that at my library. What they have is based both on donations, along with what they're able to order based on people's requests.

I may try placing requests for stuff like Bad Ronald, Angus, and some of the TV shows they offer, and see if they get them in (although I'm not 100% it'll make a difference; they still haven't followed up on my numerous requests to get in Salo)...

People buy a DVD Watch it, and decide to donate it to their Library after seeing it.

I just thought that given their prohibitive pricing and limited appeal that most libraries would be reluctant to carry them. My state in particular has come after library funding with a meat cleaver, and seriously crippled their purchasing power.

yesterday I went to my local public library and there not yet with the Warner Archive Collection title yet and I love to get the Warner Archive title to check out. And so hope will in my local library someday.

Maybe try a book first.

Seems like the perfect place for them. I wouldn't buy them but I'd certainly would check them out from the library.

This. As much as I myself would find them interesting, I think a library could spend its money much more efficiently. How many patrons would really be interested in these titles? Yes, you could expose them to something new, but I'd rather pay a fraction of the price and get a true classic to expose.

Most libraries worth their salt probably already have many of the "true classics"—and a whole lot of everything else—and have been exposing patrons to them for years now. And who's to say the libraries mentioned by others here don't take advantage of the same Archive discount sales that many of us here do, and get the discs for as low as $8 or $9 a piece? (incidentally, the local library system here carries them as well)

Frankly, if more people explored the true depth of their local library collections—especially those who live in bigger cities—blind buying would probably drop exponentially, and private disc collections would be far more manageable than they often seem to be.

I've seen those titles pop up at my local library near me and they have some OOP titles as well, which makes for some nice trips there on occasion.

I've found Criterion titles at my local library.

My library also has an impressive stock of Criterion titles, many of them out of print; sadly, acquisitions of the newer releases have dropped off as well. Sign of the times, I guess.

really? hmmm... I'll try then.

me too! they got Bottle Rocket and I can't recall other Criterion DVD title.

Perhaps, but I still think there are tons of titles I'd watch before these. There are some WAC that I'm really glad to have available, but they're like Fred Astaire titles because I've already seen 12 that are better.

You're gonna kill the industry, man!

My point is that local libraries, depending on where you live of course, probably already HAVE those "tons of titles" you could, and should, watch before WAC stuff, but that's no reason for them not to carry the WAC stuff.

I'll admit a probable advantage living in a city like Toronto with 85 library branches. Watching Criterion DVDs, for example (since others have mentioned them), especially before I moved here, used to be a catch-as-catch-can exercise. I couldn't afford to blind buy them like some folks, but I never wanted to, either. Not every Criterion is a keeper for everybody who buys it. I just wanted to SEE them, but mostly I had to cherry pick movies I had already seen prior to their inclusion in the Collection, or ones that I'd read so much about I could reasonably justify a blind buy, and even then preferably at the Barnes & Noble sales just to be safe.

Then a couple of years ago, I searched "Criterion Collection" at the library's website on a whim, and lo and behold:
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/s...lection&Erp=50
(also note the number of copies they have of most of them)

Furthermore, searching via the method above returns around 300 titles, but they actually carry a couple of hundred more (including individually-listed Eclipse discs) that can only be found by searching titles.

If that's under your nose, and free, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of it. And, since the Toronto library isn't selling copies or anything like that . . .

. . . I'm not overly concerned about the industry because having the ability to watch so many Criterions (not to mention other discs!) beforehand has actually caused me to spend MORE on actual Criterion purchases than I ever would have previously, but it allows me to do so wisely and without fear of blowing money on titles I might ultimately feel aren't worth keeping. I'm still cherry-picking, so to speak, but these days I know exactly which titles I want to own because I've already seen them for free.

So, as per my original point, my local library (and others surely) already has a beyond-impressive of titles that can and should be watched before the WAC stuff. But they've also got the WAC stuff, and that's pretty cool. So far, I've only signed out a few, and none have been worth racing out to buy online, but its still great to see them nonetheless.

I just can't see where it does any harm to have them in stock when the more "important" films are probably sitting right alongside them on the shelves.

Well, clearly it makes a big difference what your library already has and how much cash they have for acquisitions

Of course it does, but there are plenty of "more important that WAC" titles that are not Criterion discs, and are much more affordable to libraries that aren't in big cities like mine. The previous city I lived in had a population of 75,000, one main library, and one small satellite branch, but their DVD collection (and VHS before it) was exceptional (if somewhat musty in spots ). A lot of that came from donations, including my own, so budget wasn't always an issue. I still donate DVDs that I've upgraded to Blu-ray to both libraries if selling them won't net much money online.

I taken out several Criterion titles from my library and last week I took out Mrs. Parkington a Warner Archive. I have not noticed any others.

I pass the orders for DVD's at the library I work at from our selector to the vendor and we order Warner Archive titles from time to time, principally based on customer recommendations. We also carry a pretty decent selection of Criterion films. Our selector likes to have a wide range of films in the collection, old and new, domestic and foreign, live-action and animated.