I hover over our usage statistics and make an occasional go at the VHS collection. After dealing with space crunches for years, we added what Gemtrac compact shelving we could onsite and sent to storage every VHS tape that hadn't circulated in five years. Offsite storage for us means two days retrieval time. As you know VHS tapes occasionally get called into action because a DVD is scratched so it's a worthy insurance policy to keep at least one spare if you have it. In my mind storage space is relatively cheap compared to the value of many of these items when they're needed.
We've been doing selective interlibrary loan for about four years and one of the conditions of lending is replaceability. When reviewing requests I've been surprised by the number of DVDs that are suddenly unavailable so backup VHS copies do come in handy and you often won't know which ones you need until the time comes. Another issue is DVD-Rs that were purchased as replacements. These are so finicky and delicate that VHS again is needed to insure stable playback in some classrooms. On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 8:05 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all > > I think I need input and/or moral support: for various reasons having to > do with space and projected library renovation plans here at UCB, I'm > taking a hard and fairly ruthless look at the collection. > > We currently have somewhere around 5K international cinema titles, about > 96% of which we've re-bought on DVD. As an alternative to sending these > out to storage (thereby completely blowing my storage quota), I am very > seriously considering...gulp!...de-accessioning them. This makes me > nervous and breaks my heart (for which reasons I'm not exactly sure). > > Have any of you larger academic collections gone this route? Are there > compelling reasons NOT to go down this road? I realize that there are > certain benefits to vhs (such as the ability to easily cue) and that some > faculty prefer the format, still... For a largely non-archival collection, > it seems crazy to hold onto fading formats forever. > > What do you think? > > Gary > > > Gary Handman > Director > Media Resources Center > Moffitt Library > UC Berkeley > > 510-643-8566 > [email protected] > http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC > > "I have always preferred the reflection of life to life itself." > --Francois Truffaut > > > 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. > -- Chris Lewis Media Librarian American University Library 202.885.3257 Please think twice before printing this e-mail. 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.
