In my past life long before I ever got in the acquisition of DVDS, I
worked here at USC as
a serials librarian. With the pricing of academic journals, there
always been a two tiered
system of pricing. There is one rate which an individual pays for a
subscription, and what
a university library has to pay for an institutional rate. The
difference between the two rates
can often be enormous. Take, for example, *The Journal of Applied
Psychology*. An
individual pays $294, the annual institutional rate is $914. Trust me:
no university library
(including USC) is happy to pay this, but we accept this as a given.
With a few significant
exceptions, most academic journals could not continue in existence if
this institutional rate
was not imposed. And so it with the institutional price that film
distributors must charge
universities to purchase their documentary films. Do I wish that the
institutional rate was
cheaper? Of course, I do! But I also realize that without the
institutional rate, the documentary
distribution business in this country would pretty much cease to end.
And for those who
may think that documentary distributors are "gouging" the academic
market, trust me (again):
no one involved in documentary film distribution is rolling in big bucks.
Thank you,
Anthony
*******************************
Anthony E. Anderson
Assistant Director, Doheny Memorial Library
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182
(213) [email protected]
"Wind, regen, zon, of kou,
Albert Cuyp ik hou van jou."
********************************
On 9/20/2012 9:07 AM, Dennis Doros wrote:
Dear folks,
Just some information back. Even at $25 (and less), I sell about 50 to
150 copies of any of my DVDs to the colleges, high schools and public
libraries of America. There are very few institutions left who buy
indie DVDs and BluRays because they /should/ be offering them to their
students and public. Book publishers are obviously having the same
exact problem. It's left to individuals to support my work.
I can't blame filmmakers or other distributors for charging more.
Dennis
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Norman Howden <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Richard,
I'll shoot a thought at that invitation. If the independent video
authors and agents could get their works listed with jobbers,
particularly Baker & Taylor, Blackwell, and others that serve
higher ed, then they could lower prices some because they'd have a
bigger audience. On the other hand, it would be difficult to do
away with tiered pricing altogether since it is a common business
practice.
Norm
--
Norman Howden
Assistant Dean, Educational Resources
El Centro College
214-860-2176 <tel:214-860-2176>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Please visit our website at: http://www.elcentrocollege.edu/library/
"It may plausibly be urged that the shape of a culture - its
mores, evaluations, family organizations, eating habits, living
patterns, pedagogical methods, institutions, forms of government,
and so forth - arise from the economic necessities of its
technology."
- Heinlein, 1940
>>> On 9/20/2012 at 10:26 AM, in message
<ddaa91b1d53bc14dba679e49ea74af11195a4...@by2prd0811mb441.namprd08.prod.outlook.
om>, Richard Graham <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
> Fellow camslib/videolib folks,
>
> A faculty member recently requested we acquire a film titled
White Scripts
> and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books. At the
site to
> purchase it, the dreaded tiered pricing plan appears
> (http://newsreel.org/video/WHITE-SCRIPTS-BLACK-SUPERMEN), with
public and school
> libraries allowed to buy it for $25, while colleges have to
spend nearly
> $200. They claim if you purchase the home video version, you are
not granted
> rights to show the film in classrooms. Now, I'm not a lawyer,
but these sort
> of statements don't sound right to me. A colleague mentioned
that some
> publishers do this because they need funds to cover future
productions and
> it's a way for large institutions to subsidize independent
documentaries, but
> I can't help feel offended that they use these scare tactics and
assume
> colleges can easily absorb these large costs. I'm probably late
to the party
> on this topic, but I wonder what your thoughts are. Does anyone
try to work
> with publishers/producers to make these sort of materials more
affordable?
> How do you all handle these sort of acquisition situations?
>
> Cheers from Nebraska,
>
> Richard
>
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.
