Lending Media Matters…
We’re currently in the throes of discarding our thoughtfully selected (over almost 20 years), meticulously cataloged and carefully managed collection of VHS titles that were, five years ago, one of the highlights of our library. Every visiting group (local universities and schools wanting a taste of what “western” school libraries look like) was ushered into our “Special Collections” area (4500 VHS tapes, 1500 music CD’s, 1000 in-house archival videos, a growing collection of DVDs…)
There’s a story in itself, in view of Ross Todd’s exhortations that we stop obsessing over collections of “stuff”, but that’s not the issue here. The question is whether we should limit, or even deny use of our replacement collection of DVDs to our school community.
Why would we deny access to our collections? To provide full access to our collections - for our primary users (students and teachers). But if we do so, are we denying full Library2.0 access to ideas (and opportunities to create new ideas from these)?
On the other hand, is the the whole issue academic? Are DVD’s passe in a Web2.0 world anyway? Is it time to simply abandon “realia” media collections altogether? Should we just open the gates wide and deal with access issues IF they arise?
As an international school where our students have minimal access to the public libraries, Borders-quality bookstores and commercial video outlets that populate most neighborhoods in the developed world, we’ve always felt a responsibility to offer our collections for “community” use. This manifests itself in regular (often daily) use of our facilities by a small cadre of unemployed parental “spouses” who live in the gated community in which our school resides, regular circulation of adult-interest print (e.g. travel and geography titles, along with adult-interest fiction) materials - and, of course, what I’ve called the “Saturday morning Video Club”. These are the parents, who stock up on video titles every Friday. the sheer number of titles they borrow and the timing of these loans suggests that they are not used in an instructional setting, but rather, as an “educational” alternative to the limited cable-tv offerings in Bangkok.
So why is this a problem? A couple of years ago, I published the following in our PTA publication, “the Touchstone”.
Recently, a number of Main Library video titles have not been available on request by teachers during the school day. Following a review of our policies, I have decided that the policies are fine but enforcement has “relaxed” over the years, so have asked Main Library staff to strictly enforce the “Overnight Loan” policy for all video material loaned to anyone other than a classroom teacher. The policy has been in place for several years, but regular users may sometimes keep titles for several days and may have asked to borrow items during the school day rather than at the end of the day, once the chance of a classroom request has passed.
From March 1 onward, I have asked staff to provide videos on strict overnight loan to non-teachers for parental review or student extra work on the following basis;
- Titles may be borrowed following the regular school day between 2:05 and 3:00 (following which we have only one staff member on duty and close down the Special Collections area (including videos)
- All titles provided on Overnight Loan should be returned between 7:00 and 7:20 the NEXT school day.
- As we have only a single staff member on duty on Saturdays, we cannot offer video service on Saturday
We would also like to remind patrons that while ISB’s Main Library holds an impressive video collection, each title in the collection was purchased “with instructional intent”, meaning that it is not our primary purpose to provide weekend entertainment for our students. There are many video outlets available in Bangkok providing this service.
We value the wonderful collections that ISB has built to help every one of our students achieve to his or her potential. Please help us to ensure that these materials are available at all times for their intended use.
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The American Library Association provides the following guidelines for non-instructional use of school-purchased videos.
1. Loan/Rental of Videotapes
Libraries may loan/rent videos to patrons for their personal use. This is true even if the video is labeled “For Home Use Only.” According to (ALA) “a library or school that resells, rents, or lends a copy of a copyrighted videotape, which it owns, is not infringing on the copyright owner’s rights.” Some guidelines to follow when loaning/renting a video to a patron:· Libraries should not obscure (i.e., cover or deface) the copyright notice as it appears on the producer’s label.
· Libraries should not knowingly loan a video for use in public performances. If a patron inquires about a planned performance of a videotape, he or she should be informed that only private uses of it are lawful.
· Libraries can charge a nominal fee for use of videos…”The fact that a fee is charged is irrelevant; the right to distribute a copy includes the right to rent it — for a fee or deposit or otherwise.”
Check out the ALA “Fact-Sheet” site containing this at;
The question at hand - Should we continue this policy, or are we justified, given the new access to commercial media, internet sources and social networking options, in locking up our DVD collection and making it available exclusively for teacher preview, instructional use and student review (in-house).
Rob, I’d love to hear the “other story” (as in “that’s another story”) about getting rid of the VHS collection AND the uncertainty of the DVD format. Can you write about it one of these days? (Yeah, in your spare time!) We too have a (relatively) large VHS collection, and the headmaster has remarked on the possibility of replacing it all — but is it short-sighted to replace all the good ones with DVDs? I don’t know. Our teachers all have laptops and projectors now, so of course they prefer DVDs. We also subscribed to United Streaming video for a while, but apparently it wasn;t used enough to warrant its cost, and yet out tech person and I think it’s a good idea.
Thank you very much, by the way, for your nod to my Dunstanology blog. I’m embarassed, because I haven’t done much with it, feeling discouraged by the presence of the “heavyweights.” And by certain other trends here. But now I MUST post on it. You are a great inspiration to me!