Hi Mike,
Thanks for bringing this up. I deal with this false notion quite a bit,
sometimes emanating from the mouths of librarians.
Beyond murky copyright issues preventing the mass digitization and online distribution of
OP VHS, there's another reason why these (and rare 16mm film and even obscure DVDs) will
never make it to Netflix or an equivalent in 5 or 50 years: there's little or no
commercial gain in it for the for-profit sector. As you point out, there is a crucial
difference between the missions of libraries and commercial sector institutions. We can't
rely on the latter to preserve and provide access to our cultural legacy. Before MOMA,
Library of Congress, and UCLA began collecting and preserving moving image media, we
relied on the studios. What happened? "90 percent of all American silent films and
50 percent of American sound films made before 1950 appear to have vanished
forever." http://nyti.ms/mOT7GT Same thing goes for sound recordings, too.
But, to play Devil's Advocate, let's imagine that somehow all sound recordings and moving image media were magically digitized and made available online forever (forget for moment about Google Video's demise). All copyright issues vanished. Problem solved, right? We can throw away our collections, right? Wrong. If these titles were made available as streaming or downloadable files through Amazon, Netflix, or iTunes their Terms of Use dictate that only individuals (not libraries) may access the material. For those who could afford the costs associated with access (i.e., ever rising subscription costs, internet service, playback devices), no problem. For those that couldn't afford access, that growing class of Have Nots, they wouldn't be able to turn to a library for access. They would be (are) out of luck. So much for equal access to information. There are other ideals that would most likely
be forsaken in such a privatized model, such as intellectual freedom and an educated citizenry...
We are slowly digitizing OP 16mm films and VHS here @ the Univ. of Washington.
There are thousands still to go. These are titles that, true, there isn't a lot
of popular interest or commercial potential in, but they have teaching and
research value, a kind of value that is lost on many. I suppose we will
continue to do this for at least 5 more years.
- John
http://www.lib.washington.edu/media
http://faculty.washington.edu/vallier
On Fri, 5 Aug 2011, Ball, James (jmb4aw) wrote:
Hi All,
A couple of months ago we were talking to an equipment vendor about redoing a
couple of our classrooms (upgrading from Extron,
or something like that) and we were telling him that we’d still need to be able
to play VHS and laser discs, to which he
replied, “No you won’t, in 5 years everything will be streaming.” All eyes
turned to me, probably just to see how red I would
get. Not understanding the needs and mission of your client is one thing, but
contradicting them in another. “Just how do
you suppose we’ll get our 16,000 VHS tapes streaming?” “Why do you even have
them anymore? Can’t you just digitize them?” I
started to tell him about how the mission of libraries is different from the
commercial sector, and how there are copyright
restrictions, and besides it would take 15 years etc… but then I realized that
we weren’t going to buy anything from this man
so why waste my time.
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.
