Richard, We moved our DVD collection from closed stacks to open stacks in 2010. We have about 12,000 DVDs in the collection. The DVDs themselves are kept behind the desk and people that want to check out the item bring the case to the desk and ask for the DVD. We arranged the DVD cases on the open stacks, alphabetically by title, broken into categories: Feature, Documentary, Foreign, Educational, Children, Television and Performing Arts.
The hardest part was figuring out which category a particular DVD falls into. (Example: *An Inconvenient Truth*. Is it documentary or feature?) Sometimes it was purely a guess as to where we thought patrons would look. Also alphabetizing foreign titles was tricky. (*Das Boot*. Is it shelved under "D" or under "B"?) We made up ground rules as we went along and tried to stick to it as much as possible. After 3 years I can say that it works well. The shelves allow for browsing, and our students and faculty love it. Keeping the DVDs behind the desk to be requested allows us to keep control over and adequately secure the collection. I recommend it. mb On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 3:30 PM, Fleischer, Richard M. < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi videlib > > The Tisch library is in the early planning stages of moving the library > DVD collection from a closed to open stacks. We want to keep the > collection together in one place. The current filing system is by call > number dv1 is the first film in the collection dv13912 is the last film in > the collection. I was wondering how other libraries arranged the films in > open stacks. Also do you use any security system with the open stacks? > > > Thanks in advance for any help > > Richard Fleischer > Media Center Manager > Tisch Library > Tufts University > > 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. > -- Mary Beth Lock Director, Access Services Z. Smith Reynolds Library Wake Forest University 336.758.6140 Co-Editor of The Entrepreneurial Librarian<http://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurial-Librarian-Infusion-Private-business-Professional/dp/0786464682/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330290096&sr=1-1> Essays on the Infusion of Private-business Dynamism into Professional Service 0786464682
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.
