Since I have been on the selling end I am not even 100% sure what this is. I honestly can't understand why a university, school or public library would ever want a third party involved in the selection process. If you want a wholesalers to help you get the best pricing deal on the material you select that makes perfect sense. One problem with what we often call "educational" market titles is that many distributors and filmmakers will not sell them through third parties. When it has come up with titles I am involved in, the filmmakers have agreed only if we know who the buyer is and the third party gets no discount ( other than any sale price that would have applied if the institution ordered directlyzzz0. I think some companies ( I recall Action Media and Book House) did this on occasion as a courtesy to their accounts and they certainly could not make money this way. I am old fashioned enough to think that librarians ought to be the ones selecting the titles in conjunction with professors, students, patrons, etc.
Jessica On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 12:39 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi > > Here's a profoundly curmudegonly take on video approval plans for academic > libraries. > > Print approval plans have historically made a fair amount of sense for > academic libraries faced with the considerable task of keeping up with an > enormous universe of print in the face of limited staff resources and > expertise. > > Video approval plans, on the other hand, make very little sense at all > from either a collection development or a budgetary standpoint...or at > least they provide considerably fewer benefits than their print > counterparts. (Should be mentioned that you can count the number of video > approval plans on one hand). > > For one thing, the universe of video content appropriate to academic > libraries is, compared to print, tiny, particularly those titles that > exist outside of the mass market (i.e. indie produced and distributed > works). It would seem to me that the smaller the content universe, and > the smaller the budget, the less sense it makes letting someone else do > the deciding. > > Print approval plans use a wide variety of "hooks" by which books are > selected: subject matter (more or less finely defined), nature of the > publication (scholarly, popular) publisher, geographical area, > chronological coverage, authorship, audience factors (grad, undergrad, > general, etc.) On the other hand, the number of selection criteria for > video is considerably more complex and difficult to nail down. If the > plan is including mass market/home video, how does one define selection > criteria? Awards (maybe)...authorship (maybe)...subject definition is a > lot more difficult, unless you dumb it down (want all on the environment). > Beyond subject-based concerns, assessing the merits and appropriateness of > a video also include such things as looking at the quality of the visuals > and sound; looking at directorial creativity and effectiveness; the > authority and accuracy of the content. I don't know this for a fact, but > it seems unlikely that most video approval plans are going to put that > much thought into selection. > > If you expand selection to the indie universe, the stakes are a lot > higher. Do you really want someone else making decisions for you at $250 > a pop? I don't. > > Gary Handman > > >> Hello! Can anyone recommend a good vendor that deals with DVD approval >> plans? >> I am particularly interested in firms that cater to the academic market >> and can offer >> documentary films from a *wide *variety number of distributors. Or does >> such a company >> (or companies) even exist? >> >> Many thanks in advance. >> >> >> Cheers! >> Anthony >> >> ******************************* >> Anthony E. Anderson >> Assistant Director, Doheny Memorial Library >> University of Southern California >> Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182 >> (213) 740-1190 [email protected] >> "Wind, regen, zon, of kou, >> Albert Cuyp ik hou van jou." >> ******************************** >> >> >> >> >> 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 > [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. -- 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.
