Re: RE: [Videolib] visual literacy (was Nothing about videos in ALA's State of Libraries report?)

Vicki Lee Woods (woodsvic@webster.edu)
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:22:43 -0500 (CDT)

As we all know, film is so broad. It includes every subject, as well as
the art form itself. So when I think about film, I mostly think about
it as information/art/entertainment/instructional delivery
platform--just like books, but electronic. Cinema Studies is just one
area that I (surprise, surprise), think requires a subject specialist
on the academic level, just as there are subject specialists in
History, English, Biology, etc. I know at the university where I do
adjunct teaching, the subject specialists often purchase film for their
areas. In the Public Library, where my day job is, I buy all the
non-fiction videos for 17 branches and there's one big vendor that we
contract with, but not required to buy everything from, especially if
the DVD we want isn't available through them. But how many librarians
know where to go when Big Box vendor doesn't have a decent video on
some particular health related issue? Or a new release of a classic?
Gary, you have a great website and that's a start. Maybe ALA and VRT
could consider a distributors lists with a brief description of their
collections. (I realize this would have to be updated frequently, given
the rate at which distributors come and go and get absorbed into one
another) but, hey--just something to think about...

And I agree with everyone about how we need to do more regarding visual
literacy.
Tatar, Becky wrote:

>This is more about films in general - it's also about what kind of
>collection we have. How many media librarians in public libraries are
>told to just collect the current popular films - don't get the classic
>titles, art films, silent films, foreign, and so forth, or add
>nonfiction beyond the PBS titles. A couple years ago, Gary wrote a
>piece for the VRT newsletter that was just great about the importance of
>film in our lives. I really believe that. After moveable type in the
>1400s, I think the greatest inventions of the last millenia were the
>invention of sound recording and film. Thank you Thomas Edison! Now,
>we just have to convince everyone else.
>
>>From Aurora, where our Main Adult Services AV circ went up 48% last
>year, partly due to removing the $1 check out fee, and having popular
>titles, but also because we have a small but growing nonfiction
>collection that goes out.
>
>Becky Tatar
>Periodicals/Audiovisuals
>Aurora Public Library
>1 E. Benton Street
>Aurora, IL 60505
>Phone: 630-264-4100
>FAX: 630-896-3209
>bltata@aurora.lib.il.us
>www.aurora.lib.il.us
>
>
>
>
>VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of
issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic
control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in
libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will
serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a
channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions,
and video producers and distributors.
>
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.