Re: Previewing question

LaRoi Lawton (laroi.lawton@bcc.cuny.edu)
Tue, 11 Apr 2000 11:22:57 -0700 (PDT)

At our media center, all videos coming in for preview and or purchase are
viewed front to end. Many of my staff barked at this edict for some time but
history can teach some unforgettable lessons. We did not look at many of our
videos all the way through because of time constraints, not enough staff,
much less the budget. Then
Lo, and behold, one of my staff members is previewing
a video and halfway through the tape, a softball game
between two little teams somewhere in middle America appears that had
nothing to do with The Korean War.
When we called up the vendor, they apologized and sent us a replacement
which surprisingly enough had the same goof on it. They finally got it right
after the third time. Previewing is done both by faculty who use our videos
as well as my staff and I do realize that it can be a time-consuming process
but it pays to find the countless mistakes that can occur with some vendors
rather than having the mistake crop up in the classroom
when you are about to show it to a class. In our case,
the softball team was somewhat amusing, but had it been something x-rated or
offensive to the viewer, the
response would have been completely different.

Prof. LaRoi Lawton
Bronx Community College
Library & Learning Resources
Bronx, NY
----- Original Message -----
From: Susan Weber <sweber@langara.bc.ca>
To: Multiple recipients of list <videolib@library.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Previewing question

> Margit:
> There's a difference between previewing and viewing a film for
> cataloguing. All our videos are previewed & have an evaluation
> form filled in. We only buy PPR programs & average cost can
> be $200 per item, so that's why the attention.
>
> A cataloguer views the item once we buy it - & spends as
> much as it takes to: verify the title; get keywords that may
> go into the summary; write the summary; do subject headings;
> verify year of production - in other words, original cataloguing.
> We find derived cataloguing to be inconsistent (we haven't
> had access to OCLC) & with Z39.50 we do find some, but
> sometimes it takes just as long to do the original work.
>
> Because of all the attention above, we find a LOT of
> technical problems - high dropout rate; poor sound;
> creased tape - and we send all of this back to the supplier.
> It's a royal pain, but somebody has to stick up for high
> standards. We do buying for a consortium of 29
> institutions and our cataloguing is a 'master record' for
> the group and our tape is a 'master' for copies which
> we have a license to make - so we feel an obligation
> to resolve problems before they get multiplied.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Susan
>
> ================^^^^^=====^^^^^===========|
> Susan Weber, M.L.S.
> Media Librarian
> Langara College
> Advanced Education Media Acquisitions Centre (AEMAC)
> 100 West 49th Avenue
> Vancouver, British Columbia Canada V5Y 2Z6
> Tel. (604) 323-5533 Fax. (604) 323-5475
> email: sweber@langara.bc.ca
> ================^^^^^=====^^^^^===========|