(no subject)
Apr. 1st, 2007 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasLibraries have a limited amount of money and space, and have to figure out what, exactly, their mission is in order to figure out how to do it.
One question that public libraries have to ask themselves is if they are places for people to get information and education, or entertainment. And, of course, the answer is "both", but, when you have a limited budget, you have to prioritize. So you end up with questions like, "How much money should we spend on DVDs of popular Hollywood releases?"
The library one town north of us, in Wakefield, has an interesting compromise answer. DVDs which they feel will be classics, or have useful educational value, or are otherwise more useful for the "information and education" mission are dealt with normally as normal circulating media.
However, the Wakefield Friends of the Library set up seed money for a pure entertainment collection. And those are rental DVDs. One buck a week per DVD. And the money gets plowed back into the fund to buy more pure entertainment DVDs. The library has them as part of their collection, catalogs them, and has a space for them, but the "rental/entertainment" budget is separate from the rest of the library's budget.
Over time, if it becomes clear that some of those movies are actually classics with genuine cultural value -- whatever that means to whomever is making the decision -- the movies could be moved from the rental collection into the general collection.
Like all compromises, it's not perfect -- I think that a Platonic ideal free public lending library would be able to lend all materials for free, rather than having some genres of some media be rented -- but it's not bad. It works pretty well.
Which is why Lis and I just watched Hoodwinked, a movie that we'd kind of intended to maybe see in the theaters, but never got around to. It's a (fairly badly) computer-animated movie about what REALLY happened in the Red Riding Hood story, with a frog doing Nick Charles from the Thin Man movies as the detective. (With Asta. As his stenographer.)
Well, it was definitely worth a dollar, anyway. I mean, I tend to rate movies, in my own head, on a scale from "worth first-run prices, including parking and popcorn" -- and very few movies rate that -- down to "I want my 89 minutes back, and I want someone to pay me for pain and suffering."
This movie was probably worth "second run/matinée". So "one dollar rental" was a bargain. Definitely worth it at that price.
And it wouldn't have really been worth it for the library to dip into their REAL budget for something like that, but, as they have a "rental cheesy entertainment DVD" budget, it was a good thing.
Sometime this week, I'll have to get around to watching "Kung Fu Hustle" and the Ang Lee "The Hulk". They may be good, they may be bad -- but they also will be only a dollar. For that price, I'll risk it.
One question that public libraries have to ask themselves is if they are places for people to get information and education, or entertainment. And, of course, the answer is "both", but, when you have a limited budget, you have to prioritize. So you end up with questions like, "How much money should we spend on DVDs of popular Hollywood releases?"
The library one town north of us, in Wakefield, has an interesting compromise answer. DVDs which they feel will be classics, or have useful educational value, or are otherwise more useful for the "information and education" mission are dealt with normally as normal circulating media.
However, the Wakefield Friends of the Library set up seed money for a pure entertainment collection. And those are rental DVDs. One buck a week per DVD. And the money gets plowed back into the fund to buy more pure entertainment DVDs. The library has them as part of their collection, catalogs them, and has a space for them, but the "rental/entertainment" budget is separate from the rest of the library's budget.
Over time, if it becomes clear that some of those movies are actually classics with genuine cultural value -- whatever that means to whomever is making the decision -- the movies could be moved from the rental collection into the general collection.
Like all compromises, it's not perfect -- I think that a Platonic ideal free public lending library would be able to lend all materials for free, rather than having some genres of some media be rented -- but it's not bad. It works pretty well.
Which is why Lis and I just watched Hoodwinked, a movie that we'd kind of intended to maybe see in the theaters, but never got around to. It's a (fairly badly) computer-animated movie about what REALLY happened in the Red Riding Hood story, with a frog doing Nick Charles from the Thin Man movies as the detective. (With Asta. As his stenographer.)
Well, it was definitely worth a dollar, anyway. I mean, I tend to rate movies, in my own head, on a scale from "worth first-run prices, including parking and popcorn" -- and very few movies rate that -- down to "I want my 89 minutes back, and I want someone to pay me for pain and suffering."
This movie was probably worth "second run/matinée". So "one dollar rental" was a bargain. Definitely worth it at that price.
And it wouldn't have really been worth it for the library to dip into their REAL budget for something like that, but, as they have a "rental cheesy entertainment DVD" budget, it was a good thing.
Sometime this week, I'll have to get around to watching "Kung Fu Hustle" and the Ang Lee "The Hulk". They may be good, they may be bad -- but they also will be only a dollar. For that price, I'll risk it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 02:57 am (UTC)I do the same thing.
* worth first-run theatre ticket
* worth bargain matinee ticket
* worth second-run at the Somerville
* worth $4 DVD rental
* worth watching on Netflix
* I want that two hours of my life back
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 03:01 am (UTC)I caught Kung Fu Hustle downtown at first run theater. Don't regret the cost. 'Course, I ended up picking up the DVD as well, so I guess my opinion on the film is a bit biased. And I like bad martial arts film as well as good films like Crouching Tiger.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 03:35 am (UTC)Other than that, I guess it was okay.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 03:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-09 03:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 03:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 04:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 06:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-02 11:32 am (UTC)They rent both bestseller DVDs and books, but also buy copies for the collection. If you don't mind waiting until stuff comes your way through the reserve/hold system, you can just wait (they get 5-10 free copies, so on average, I wait 2-3 months for the really popular stuff, if I don't reserve them really early. I usually start somewhere between 40 and 70 on the hold list.)
If you want them faster, you can see if it shows up on the rental shelf. Rentals are 25 cents per day (including days the library's closed.) Videos are in the same ballpark for rentals - and again, either you can reserve and wait for it, or you can pay.
Works really well, and they funnel the rental money back into more rental stuff, and into general collection building.