Jared - Sorry to hear that your admin is dictating this move without giving you time to plan. Take a deep breath. Open stacks are not the enemy, and can be a great thing for visibility & usage of the collection. Sounds like they're still going to be within sight of the library staff? That's good. But you do need some form of security. As others have mentioned, you can go with locked & tattletaped cases for the DVDs or a split where you have open browsing but keep discs in sleeves behind the counter. Don't worry too much about the VHS tapes. If they're titles still being used, they're going to be on reserve and/or booked right? Focus on tattletaping those tapes rather than the VHS collection as a whole. Ask for money for cases and for "shrinkage" money. Remind them that the average cost of all those educational films is about $250 each. (In reality, theft tends to be the cheap popular films, which is irritating but not as expensive.) Oh, let them know that your patrons aren't really liking browsing by accession numbers, so you'd like to talk to cataloging about having them classed by call numbers.
On year 8 of successful implementation of open video stacks & of using increased circulation stats to justify increased budget, ~Barb Barb Bergman | Media Services & Interlibrary Loan Librarian | Minnesota State University, Mankato | (507) 389-5945 | barbara.berg...@mnsu.edu
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.
