Perpetual DSL would go a long way toward easing my workload. The more titles we get from different vendors, the more work, the harder to track.
I'll go back to a suggestion I made a while ago on this list for filmmakers and distributors to get together and make your equivalent of an iTunes store so we can have one stop shopping. If that's to overwhelming at the very least, standardize your site searches and terminology so the end user doesn't have to learn new terms at every vendor's site. 1) The more titles in one place, the easier they are to find, the more they will be used, and probably equals more sales. Certainly tracking licenses would be easier and you wouldn't have to worry about the file format issue because you'd be in control of that. 2) The url or link would be called the same thing and found in the same place for every title. Picture the current situation for your ultimate end user, faculty and students. Every vendor to which a library subscribes has a different looking website, with different searching, and different terminology and location for their permalinks. Multiple that by ebooks and ejournals and you've got job security for librarians because we have to tell them how to find and use the stuff. We'd much rather it be intuitive for the user and spend our time helping patrons with things we really shouldn't expect them to know how to do. 3) Make your peace with IP protected access rather than the additional step of availability only via a courseware system. This will reduce the cost per view and help with purchasing decisions. 4) You can add extra goodies like linking to segments, the ability for faculty to create clip libraries so they can show only the segments they need to. 5) Faculty can view what the library has purchased rights to as well as shop for other titles. 6) Provide METADATA so we can index it in our catalog, that's where our patrons go to look for stuff. 7) Learn what stop words are, e.g. A, An, The, and don't alphabetize your titles under those words. Do you know how many millions of books and movies begin with one of those words. 8) Include identifying info beyond the title, e.g. date, director, producer/director, stars because so many movies have the same or nearly the same title. 9) Provide usage statistics, e.g. number of views, date of last view, term, cost per term, cost per view over the term. 10) If licenses do expire, set it up so that the purchaser receives a report, as in #9, and send it at least one month or more before they expire. Let me tell you, faculty just do not get why it can sometimes take months to acquire a stream. They think everything is like Amazon instant video or the iTunes store where they can get it instantly. Off my soapbox for now. Jo Ann Jo Ann Reynolds Reserve Services Coordinator University of Connecticut Libraries 369 Fairfield Road, Unit 1005RR Storrs, CT 06269-1005 [email protected] 860-486-1406 860-486-5636 (fax) http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/mediaresources From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Norris Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 1:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Videolib] DRL In Perpetuity With all the discussions going on about desired pricing flexibility, I'd like to bring up another collector request that is arising more and more- digital rights licenses in perpetuity. The logic, which I agree with, is prior formats (DVDs, VHS, etc.) were not limited by a term. Plus it is an administrative burden for universities to track hundreds if not thousands of expiration dates. For this discussion, let's assume that it is within the distributor's rights to grant digital rights for the life of the original digital file. I pick this scenario because I believe it is within distributor's rights to grant a perpetual DRL as long as the file format is not changed and some buyers seem to understand this and consider it an acceptable solution. However, I do not see how this reduces the university's administrative costs. You would still have to track the original file formats and make sure they are not changed. In fact it seems even harder to track and enforce because IT is often oblivious of copyright issues and would not necessarily notify librarians of any format changes. Am I missing something or would the above solution simply shift the admin burden, not eliminate it? Plenty of distributors would like to accommodate collector's needs as long as it is within their legal right to do so and they have reasonable assurances that university controls are in place to adhere to the license terms. Any thoughts or insights on how to achieve this? Bob Robert A. Norris Managing Director Film Ideas, Inc. Phone: (847) 419-0255 Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Web: www.filmideas.com<http://www.filmideas.com/>
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.
