Re: VHS shifting to DVD collections

Renee Zurn (rzurn@duluth.lib.mn.us)
Sat, 5 Oct 2002 11:53:51 -0700 (PDT)

The Duluth Public Library also has a mixed children's/feature/non-fiction VHS browsing collection of over 8,000 titles. I will continue to purchase and spend most of my budget on VHS. However I now need to purchase DVD's with the same Media Budget. I just started purchasing DVD's this year and have just over 80 titles, almost all of them feature films. We do limit people to two titles per card to help spread the collection around. Next year I may spend 2/3 of my budet on VHS and 1/3 on DVD.

I always purchase DVD's that duplicate the VHS collection. Most of our patrons ask for VHS and only a few ask for DVD. The DVD patrons are usually younger than the VHS patrons or die-hard movie fans. Since my budget did not increase, I will usually purchase one copy of a DVD and maybe two copies of the VHS, depending on the titles.

We keep the DVD case on the shelf but store the actual disc behind the Circulation Counter. The patron has to get the disc at checkout. Before we started the DVD collection we heard many stores of how a library had 60-70% of its DVD collection stolen the first few months. That is why we decided to do a closed collection.

We have two branch libraries but I do not purchase DVD's for them yet. I plan to build-up the collection at the Main Library before I branch out. I also have books-on-disc only at the Main Library.

Renee Zurn
Duluth Public Library
520 W. Superior St.
Duluth MN 55802