I should appreciate the advice / comments of any of you who
have experience of administering a video collection for Library use
and / or loan.
At present, we have a small but expanding collection of some 200
videos, most of which support course work. We have a small room for
videos and player, kept locked when not in use and accommodating no
more than two people in comfort. In addition, we currently offer overnight loan
availability in an attempt to address the needs of both Library and
home users. We also operate an informal booking system for the videos
and player for anyone who wishes to book ahead but otherwise,
both are available on a first come first served basis.
We are now looking at ways of streamlining the whole operation and
envisage introducing a one week loan period although items in heavy
demand would be restricted to a short loan period (currently 4 hours
or due for return by 10.00 am next day for items borrowed after
3.00pm). Some videos, for contractual reasons would not be allowed out for home viewing and
use and would be for viewing in the Library only. I wonder what kind of regime
other Libraries have, what sort of loan periods you operate and how
well you find these work?
As far as Library viewing goes, we are considering the possibility of
placing the video player in an open area to allow greater freedom of
access. (Headphones would be required of course). Again I would be
interested to hear about the kind of viewing arrrangements you have
in your own institutions......e.g. staff controlled viewing room or
open access......and how your videos are displayed i.e are they
available for browsing / self-service without staff intervention for
people wishing to use them in the Library? (All of our collection
will be security tagged in due course so hopefully, this aspect will
be unproblematic).
Any information you can give on any aspect of your own service will
be very much appreciated.
Linda Huig
Stack Services, Leicester University Library.
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