Lisa, We are being faced with figuring out the same thing with our 16mm film collection. I have been going through each title to see if it has become available online, or in VHS or DVD formats, or if I could locate a copyright holder to gain permission to convert into streamed media. Sometimes they have popped up in Internet.org, or streamed online on other sites, but before relying on these you need to determine whether the streamed site is a legal source, or a stable site which will be maintained in the future.
Use should be considered, if you have maintained statistics on the number of 16mm checkouts or any internal use. During that process, I would recommend seeing how frequently a course is offered which might have used it, since not every course is taught each semester, some have two year cycles at our institution. Also, has a faculty member retired that previously used it or are there courses still being taught that might? Conversations with specific departments or colleges on campus might be warranted. As part of our review, we have checked with campus authorities to determine whether we can offer any of these films to other educational institutions, both inside and outside of our state, since technically, these were purchased with state dollars as we are a public institution, and there are restrictions for us on withdrawing our materials. I also looked at our collection for any unique kinds of titles. We have had a few, such as the eruption of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii. I found out a few years ago that the U. S. Geological Survey did not even have a copy of this, so we converted the title into a more usable format, and sent them a copy. The same thing has happened with a few other films, like some older CLIO Award titles which again, they did not have copies, so we converted into more usable format and sent them a copy when they gave us permission to do so. One film had clips of a pre-fire 1919 San Francisco containing a view of the streets, people, and buildings from a moving trolley car perspective. I am thinking we should hang on to these kinds of things, even if they need to go into our Special Collections and Archives collections for retention and safe keeping. Originally, our campus' IT department handled the circulation of these films until they were turned over to our library in 2000. When that happened, they removed most, if not all, of the projectors from their inventory, and dispersed them to faculty/departments on campus who requested them. Over time, I believe these have become a scarce commodity campus-wide. So availability of equipment in a classroom is something that definitely needs to be considered. Going forward, we will have to determine what we will retain, and consider if or how we will circulate these materials given the limited equipment that is available for use and their sometimes fragile conditions. This might not have given you any answers to your questions, but perhaps some food for thought. There are probably numerous other things you might want to take into consideration when thinking about dismantling your 16mm film collection, and hopefully others on this list will send in their thoughts. I would be interested in hearing them. Good luck. Jeanne Little -- Rod Library - Room 240 Resource Management-Collections Content Discovery Division University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA 50614-3675 319-273-7255 On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 12:20 PM, <fellin...@aol.com> wrote: > Dear Media Professionals, > > We are now at a crossroads as to the fate or future of our 16 mm > collection. > > I would like to call on all Film/ Media Librarians to discover how you > have handled your 16 mm film collections over the years. > > What has been their fate in a *seemingl*y all digital universe? > > Have you donated them to other collections? > Have you weed out the worn out prints? > Have you checked to make sure they are available in another format? > > > Let me know so I can use your expertise. You may respond off-line, if > you prefer to do so. > > > Thanks so much. > > > > Lisa Flanzraich > Media and Reference Librarian > Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library > Queens College > 65-30 Kissena Blvd. > Flushing , NY 11367 > 718-997-3673 > Room 344 > > > 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. >
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.
