Interesting issue. I'm afraid I have no advice on this matter. Once the media desk merges into circulation, the sense of media as an independent format with it's own intellectual "aura" is gone.
But this is the nature of the modern circ system. Get the books/DVDs/Things. To a hammer, everything is a nail; to a circ desk, everything is an object. If t bleeds, it leads, but it needs a bar code. A separate media desk attracts geeks who love film, esoterica, and intellectual aspects of a field of study. You get Z-generation Goths watching Marlene Dietrich. They want to watch Bande à part in the original. And forget about Jimmy Johnston, the [typical] American who runs through the Louvre in record breaking time. Don't stop to see the pretty pictures. We've lost this in the modern neo-Darwinian Library, crossdressed, crosstrained and fretful about accountability and the crossaligned G8 mentailty. It went the way of full format 35 mm film, long ago, into the small frame, "give me the thing" is there a playlist of essential clips? Mon dieu! At my library we have the gall to debate whether student staff can use the lunch room. Do you wanna say hello to my special fren? ============== Randal Baier Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197 (734) 487-2520 rba...@emich.edu tweets @rbaier – skypes @ randalbaier “... do not all strange sounds thrill us as human till we have learned to refer them to their proper source?” -Thoreau, mss., Journal 9: 1854-1855 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maureen Tripp" <maureen_tr...@emerson.edu> To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 9:19:48 AM Subject: [Videolib] merging media desk with circulation and reference desks So this is happening. not right away, but eventually, probably next academic year. If other academic library media folk have made this transition, I'd love advice/tips for planning and implementing the change, especially regarding student staff-- for example, when did you start cross-training? and how did you do it? (manual, workshops, shadowing?) how did you establish reporting lines and accountability? how did you handle merging two groups of student workers with distinct organizational cultures? thanks, collective wisdom! Maureen
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.
