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Hallo, Sue/Colin, We (Keele) didn't respond to your original request for info on this. Sorry. But I've looked at your summary of responses, and thought a belated response from here might still be of interest. We display cases only. Students who want to view discs on site, or (more likely nowadays) borrow them for use elsewhere, are required to request them at our short-loans counter. User-friendliness is not compromised by this arrangement, I think. Neither do we find the question of triggering or tattle-taping a major concern as the discs' security consists principally of secure storage and our records of use and loans. Tattle-tape, or similar, is always going to be problematic as it is not really compatible with the design of DVDs and players/recorders. To date (I hope I'm not tempting fate) I don't think we've ever lost a DVD since we started to invest in them two or three years ago. On the face of it, a solution that involves tattle-taping without satisfactorily meeting concerns about theft or malicious mislocation is not a very good solution. And unavailability is certainly not user-friendly, particularly if it coincides with requirement for a particular module at a set time. No offence intended to institutions that do operate this way, of course: there may be factors (e.g. space, collection size?) there which point to other conclusions than ours. > Hi, > > We recently posted a request for information to lis-link > concerning storage and security for DVDs in libraries. The > following is a brief summary of the responses that we received. I > will be sending more detailed feedback to those that responded > and would be happy to do this on request for anyone else that is > interested. > > 14 libraries responded, all using one or more of the three broad > approaches that we had identified for ourselves (see below for > details), and for each option, at least one library had changed to > it after finding another unsatisfactory. As you will see, there are > pros and cons to each option and, sadly, no clear 'winner' > emerged from this survey, although we feel that it has clarified > and confirmed the issues involved. We are now currently > inclining towards an open access tattle-tape based solution with > a small selection of heavily used (and therefore highest risk) > stock on closed access in their original cases behind the issue > desk for extra security. We hope that this mixed approach will > give us the right balance of security and ease of use. > > Specific responses were as follows: > > * Keep stock on closed access (usually at an issue desk) * > > 5 respondents use this approach (2 with cases on display). > Of these, 1 keeps the disks in their cases and is considering > lockable cases as an alternative to save space. > This option seems to be the most secure, but is not very user- > friendly for borrowers and is potentially time- and space- > consuming for staff. Equipment costs are likely to be low. > > * Keep stock on open access secured by lockable external > cases * > > 3 respondents use this approach. > Of these, 1 changed to this from tattle-tape for commercially > bought DVDS because of playability problems and theft but still > use tattle-tape only for inhouse DVD recordings, 2 trigger all > DVDS as well as using lockable cases, and 2 agree that there > are space and handling problems with this approach. > This option seems to be high on security and reasonably user- > friendly for borrowers, but can cause space and handling > problems both on the shelves and at issue desks. Equipment > costs are likely to be high. > > * Keep stock on open access secured by specialised tattle- > tape triggers * > > 6 respondents use this approach (with 2 non-respondents also > referred to as sources of advice). > Of these, 1 changed to this from lockable cases because of > handling difficulties at the Issue Desk, 1 is becoming concerned > about 'unacceptable levels of loss' which they suspect to be > because DVDS are easy to hide amongst personal property and > hard to find when exit alarms are set off, and 1 has moved their > DVDs into a more secure Heavy Demand area because of > losses experienced on open access. > This option seems to be viewed as acceptably secure by most > users, and is probably the most user-friendly for both borrowers > and staff, treating DVDs in the same way as books. Some loss, > however, is reported. Equipment costs are likely to be low, at > least for libraries already using tattle-tape for book security. > > Sue Grant for: > > Colin Beney > Circulation Librarian > Main Library > Queen Mary, University of London > > [log in to unmask] > (Tel: 020 7882 3311) -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Linnell, Humanities and Education Link Librarian, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom. Tel.: (+44) 01782 584160 Fax: (+44) 01782 711553 e-mail: [log in to unmask] -----------------------------------------------------------------------