Audio and Sound Recordings The survey methodology allowed us to ask questions of particular interest for our policy development, which included questions about recorded information and fines policies. Both faculty and student users found our audio and video collections adequate, but all have very high expectations, especially as use of these formats becomes commonplace in teaching and research. Students questioned our fines policies in this area, which as you will see below, has led to a major change in our approach. Respondents’ comments "The only complaints...and the availability of films in foreign languages and the ability to watch foreign formatted films. Maybe the library should buy a regionless DVD player so that we have more options for buying films, too. " "There needs to be a list of all the videos and audios available. It is impossible to access the audio-visual black hole if you don’t know what you are specifically looking for!." "I wish one could remove audio-visual materials from the library, so that one could use these materials at home or after hours." "I think that $1 an hour for a late video rental is a bit extreme." "$2 an hour for a fine is a bit steep." "Reduce video fees! $1 per hour is too much...how about a few bucks a day!" Library's Response Regionless DVD player The library now has one of these. Video and Audio Lists A list of all the audio visual materials would run to about 30,000 items. Even if such a list could be made, it would be too cumbersome to use. The Library does have one list easily available both on paper and on the web. This is the ever-popular feature films list, which contains about 2,600 items. Other lists can be generated with subject searches and other limiting capabilities of the online system. These lists can be tailored to your interests. Lists of comedy films, jazz of the 1960's, documentary films about Chile, are among the myrid possibilities. Next time you’re looking for something, please let one of us show you how to do this. It only takes a few minutes. Also the Library's catalog now features the ability to limit to particular formats before doing a search, which will help a lot with audio-visual material searching. Circulating Audio and Video Materials Many of the videos do go out of the library. In addition to the 2,600 feature films mentioned above, most of the musicals and operas circulate to students. Many of the dance performances do also, as do about half of the documentaries. The only ones that stay in the library are the most expensive ones - mostly documentaries - that can cost from $250.00 to $1,500.00 apiece, and are often impossible to replace. We don’t want to burden students with the cost of replacing these. Even so, these will be allowed out of the library on a limited basis for academic work. The same is true of sound recordings. If you need some of these things for a special project, please talk to one of us about it. Video Fines The video fines structure was developed years ago when the collection was smaller and competition for popular videos was keen. That’s why it is the way it is. However, circumstances have changed. The collection is larger so the demand for any single video is not what it once was. Students have become more conscientious about bringing their videos back on time. With these fortuitous conditions, we have set new video fines as follows: Circulating videos $.25 per hour Non-circulating videos $1.00 per hour Reserve videos $2.00 per hour

	Page author: Laura Juraska Date: 8/25/03		Feedback and Suggestions © Bates College. All rights reserved.