Hi Andy and welcome to the list. Sorry for this late-ish reply (I've been out of town for the last few days)
As a big research library collection, we have pretty steadfastly avoided weeding over the past 30 years or so, the assumption being is that one important part of our mission is to retain, preserve, and provide access to the cultural and intellectual record over the long-haul. In the past, we've had the luxury of being able to send lesser-used stuff off to remote storage...but even then, there has been enough space locally to avoid doing much of that, too. We now find ourselves very close to running out of space, and we've had to rethink some things, even though the mission stated above remains pretty firm. (There's also a chance that this building will be renovated in a few years, in which case we'd have to move the collection into other digs...a big impetus for getting rid of stuff). For openers, we've sent most every piece of DVD and tape that does not have English subtitles off to storage. We've started sending low-use items off to storage, as well. What about actual weeding? We'll, as much as it has pained me to do so, we're starting to go through the feature film collection (about 7K titles)and weed titles that we've re-bought on DVD. We're being fairly conservative: in cases where the vhs version has been used heavily in the past 3 years or so, we're retaining both vhs and DVD. We're paying particularly close attention to titles that have gone out of distribution in DVD,or which have never been released on DVD. Decisions to weed or retain are always closely pegged to the broader nature, uses, and mission of collection. Throwing stuff out because it's not the format du jure may be justifiable for certain kinds of collections, but not others--research collections vs collections which largely act as course reserve materials; public v academic, etc. In each case, however, the decisions should not be wholesale or knee-jerk, and should take into account both long- and short-term users needs. As to format conversion: that's an issues which has been extensively discussed on this list in the past. At UCB, we have slowly but surely invoked the provisions of Section 108 of the copyright law to make replacement copies of tapes which are no longer in commercial distribution, but which are at some physical risk of deterioration. Those are about the only circumstances under which you can transfer tape to DVD (or other digital media). It is very (VERRRY) unclear at this point how (or if) 108 applies to streaming out of print/at risk materials. At Berkeley, we're assuming it doesn't apply at all (for the moment). Hope this helps some. gary > Good morning, > I'm brand new to the list. I've posted this to the PADG and Archives > list as well, but I wanted to get your thoughts on how your institution > may be handling VHS tapes. We used to have a policy in place where we > would play these tapes to prevent packing, but this hasn't been done in > years. Is anyone still doing this? Are you converting VHS tapes to DVD > or are you converting them for streaming? Are you replacing these where > appropriate (within the constraints of copyright law? How often do you > weed, if at all, and how do you "persuade" selectors to work with these > collections and make decisions? Are there any other strategies you're > using for evaluating existing collections? > Also, how are you following or dealing with copyright issues relating > to this subject. I appreciate any help. Thanks. --Andy > > -- > Andrew J. Damico > Preservation Librarian > Fondren Library - MS44 > Rice University > 6100 S. Main St. > Houston, TX 77005 -1892 > PH: 713-348-2602 > FAX: 713-348-5862 > > > 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. > Gary Handman Director Media Resources Center Moffitt Library UC Berkeley 510-643-8566 ghand...@library.berkeley.edu 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.
