Thanks everyone for your feedback.
Regarding obsolescence - We share the same support issues Gail and others have brought up. The men in glasses wheeling a projector into the classroom (who I'll now fondly refer to as "The Dennis' ") are gone. Last year, the single 16mm projector that was being delivered out to classrooms broke and the department overseeing this service called it quits on supporting 16mm in the classroom. We have about 4 functioning machines left on campus with very few people who still know how to properly use them and no one inhouse to do even basic repairs. On the rare occasion a faculty member wants to show a 16mm in the classroom, our institution basically can't support them. In a local sense, 16mm equipment and the skills needed to support it are basically obsolete here (in many universities in general???), though as Jessica points out it is still available and used in other areas. Regarding ILL - thanks for this feedback too. This issue had never come up before and it stumped me. I vaguely remembered analog vs. digital being a factor in lending of any type. We generally don't circulation any 16mm films outside of the library anyway (especially through ILL), though I will make sure to clarify in our catalog records that the 16mm is not an access copy at all. Thanks, Kim Kim Stanton Head, Media Library University of North Texas kim.stan...@unt.edu P: (940) 565-4832 F: (940) 369-7396 From: videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu [mailto:videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Gail Fedak Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:09 PM To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: [Videolib] ILL of Section 108 copies When I entered the media world in the mid 70's, we were fortunate to have a 16mm lending library cooperative for subscribing K-12 schools located within our library, so had access to a professional 16mm repair and refurbishing machine, complete with two experienced operators. While 16mm is a reasonably sturdy format, the myriad of casual users (faculty in classrooms and students in study rooms) wrecked havoc on our titles. Improper threading of the projector meant large scratches, ripped sprocket holes, etc., and attempts to pause for a still-frame usually produced a nice burn. I venture to guess that, for many academic libraries that still have 16mm titles on hand, they do not have sufficient equipment to keep them viable and are probably short on staff who know how to repair them. What about the availability of replacement footage for sections so heavily spliced that one or more sequences are rendered useless? These factors constitute no reason to pursue an unauthorized, wholesale conversion of a 16mm collection to a newer format, but they do weigh in on the side of classifying 16mm as an expiring, if not expired, format for academic libraries. Due diligence can be applied to finding rights holders (we've done it when needed) for permission or license to avoid the necessity of keeping a title transferred to DVD in-house. The quest is not always successful, but is certainly doable. And this list has provided excellent leads in many of our quests. If we still had a 16mm collection, I would be concentrating my efforts on replacing and converting as fast as possible. Gail Gail B. Fedak Director, Media Resources Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, TN 37132 Phone: 615-898-2899 Fax: 615-898-2530 Email: gfe...@mtsu.edu<mailto:gfe...@mtsu.edu> Web: www.mtsu.edu/~imr<http://www.mtsu.edu/%7Eimr> “Education is a progressive study of your own ignorance.” – Will Durant
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.
