Re: [Videolib] open/vs closed stacks

Susan Albrecht (albrechs@wabash.edu)
Thu, 19 Feb 2004 08:44:05 -0500

From a fellow Hoosier, I respectfully disagree with Lisa. Granted, we're
a small institution with only 2500-3000 items in our VHS/DVD collection,
but we made the move to open stacks for VHS about 3 three years ago, and it
has been wonderful to see the use of these materials increase. When new
VHS materials come in, if they are extremely expensive or a valuable
out-of-print title that I've obtained used, I have the cataloger mark this
as a "Circ Video" and it's housed behind the circulation desk. All of our
DVDs are also kept behind circ., though I don't think that will last much
longer. I figured The Godfather boxed set would be gone w/in 2 weeks, but
surprisingly, it's still here after a year and a half.

In short, I think you do what you can to protect the "biggies" and the
irreplacables [our copy of Sunrise on laserdisc, for instance], but for the
largest part of the collection, I say let the folks see what you've got and
enjoy it.

Videos circulate to students for 7 days, for faculty & staff for 14
days. Like Barb in Mankato, we also ILL videos/DVDs to institutions who
will reciprocate.

Susan at Wabash College

At 05:59 PM 2/18/2004 -0500, Lisa at Notre Dame wrote:

>Unless you have electrical barbed wire on your videocassettes/DVDs--I WOULD
>DEFINITELY NOT ALLOW THEM ON OPEN STACKS. Consider the fact that you
>will not be able to the replace the $200-250 independently made production
>that
>was stolen from the shelf, and that the students and faculty will suffer
>for that loss.

Susan Albrecht
Acquisitions Coordinator
Wabash College Lilly Library
Crawfordsville, IN
x6216
albrechs@wabash.edu

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