Jessica makes a good point. Most public libraries cannot afford educational
films - they're cutting staff, hours, and collections - they aren't going to
spend $250 for an 18-minute film that is of interest to a very select group of
people. But the other problem is that many public libraries do not have a
media
librarian - they have collection development librarians who select AV; but few
have someone who is really dedicated to media. So even if the prices were
better; it would take some serious marketing efforts to make sure
that selectors
had the information to be able to buy educational films. I was lucky enough to
go to NMM a couple years ago - but I know few public libraries send their
selectors.
I'm glad this debate is going on; and I hope that there will be a way to
involve
public libraries in this effort.
Sheila Urwiler
Patron Services Manager
Starke County Public Library
Knox, IN
________________________________
From: Jessica Rosner <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tue, July 5, 2011 10:56:10 AM
Subject: [Videolib] I hate to be a spoilsport re "Educational Media Groupons"
but I don't think we are on the right track here. So fare what I see is media
buyers eager to get films at lower prices and sellers happy to lower prices IF
they can still survive doing this, the problem is that this group is far too
small to make a difference. This is not a problem what will be solved at NMM or
on this listserv. The reason merchants participate in Groupon is that it is
supposed to bring them a HUGE number of NEW customers. If the same people just
buy more titles at a lower price, educational distiributors
will still go out of business. The most popular titles will get "cherry picked"
as being popular enough to sell copies within the limited market at a lower
price and 95% of the films will disappear for lack of buyers. Unless those
pushing the lower prices are indicating they will be able to spend 10 times
what
they currently do, then in reality it does not help. In order for a $250 title
to sell for $30 you will need to sell 10 times as many (you will have higher
costs), which means you need 10 times the market.
Unless we can collectively vastly increase the market for the hundreds of
wonderful non fiction and specialized films. lower prices will simply ensure
the
death of 90% or more of these titles, a process that has basically been
underway
for a number of years. I think the only hope for saving the "educational" film
market is convince public libraries to start buying them and for higher
education institutions to broaden their collections. Right now public libraries
can not afford the majority of these titles, at $30 they could, but would they
in fact buy them? I think we need something along the lines of Library Media
Project that worked with foundations to underwrite costs of curated collections
to make titles more available to libraries. No need for curated collections,
but bluntly there will be a need for some outside financial support to both get
the word out as well as subsidize some costs. You don't want to get me started
on the funding of studies to look into the needs of libraries, the technology
changes, lots of conferences and consultants but nothing practical. I swear for
the cost of one conference on say the difficulties of distribution African
Films
in the US, you could get a dozen or more films
IN distribution. I am prejudiced because Mary Kirby is an old friend, but I
always thought the Library Media Project went under because it spent most of
it's resources getting actual physical films into libraries and not studying
the
concept. The point is we need help. Most of you have better connections than
me,
but unless we have away to dramatically increase the number of copies sold of a
wide range of independent , mostly non fiction films, the few that might do
well
with a groupon at NMM won't make any difference.
Now NMM and this listserv are the places to start working on a plan but the
goal
has to be a large NEW market not the mere shifting of funds from the existing
one.
--
Jessica Rosner
Media Consultant
224-545-3897 (cell)
212-627-1785 (land line)
[email protected]
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.
