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This problems sounds sadly familiar - and I'm afraid we have not come up with an answer either. In our experience the decline in audio use accelerated after the introduction of the 3 month 'Holdback'. We too phased out cassettes to concentrate on CD's but to no avail. One thing we have tried which helps a little is that no audio stock is bought for individual branches. Instead we buy enough copies for half our branches and re-cycle all new stock on to the remaining branches after 3 months. The initial location is staggered so that everyone gets a share of the brand new material. This technique ensures that everyone sees all the new stock over a three month period and we have money available to widen the range of material we provide. We do this on our computer system (Dynix) but it could equally be done manually. We also removed all the classical material from branches and put it into a circulating collection which is currently going around branches. It is lending quite well but unfortunately we have not yet had time to look at the loans gained by the material while it was in branches to make a comparison - perhaps during the autumn. We certainly want to do this because we do try to monitor all our marketing experiments. We are currently seeking to come up with a marketing strategy for audio - some ideas mooted (and will probably be tried later this winter) include concentrating our publicity in schools and youth centres because this is the age group from which most of our customers come. We can identify audio users from our computer, so we intend to send publicity packs to all audio users with latest additions lists, free hire vouchers and other goodies. We have tried stuff like this in the past and monitored the outcome and it did work well. George Kerr Customer Services Manager ---------- > From: Rhian Williams <[log in to unmask]> > To: libs newsgroup uk <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Music collections (CDs and cassettes) > Date: 23 August 1999 21:48 > > We are in a situation of declining issues for CDs and cassettes, where collections are not self-finacing, where because of our financial situation we cannot afford to spend enough to make an impact, where even new titles do not issue well and where our staff appear to be a substantial proportion of the borrowers and they do not pay to borrow. We some time ago decided to buy only CDs and gradually to phase out cassettes and we have tried moving collections to more prominent locartions within the library as well as only having collections in our bigger libraries. We are considering our options (unfortunately spending a bigger sum of money does not appear to be one of them) and in the context of Best Value I am asking whether any other authority (especially those who don't have a 'central library' ) have been in the same situation and what they did? Centralise to one or two libraries only? Withdraw the service? Change the charging policy? Publicise differently? Concentrate on c! > er! > tain categories of music? Ignore the problem? What were the effects in terms of issues and customer response? > > (By the way we do not appear to have the same problem with videos despite the fact that we only stock information videos and the film of the book.) > > I would be very grateful for any information or experience that would help us decide on our next steps. Thanks! > > Rhian Williams > Prif Lyfrgellydd / Principal Librarian > Gwasanaeth Llyfrgell, Gwybodaeth ac Archifau / Library, Information & Archives Service > Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol CONWY County Borough Council > E-bost / E-mail: [log in to unmask] > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%