There appears to be a general consensus among the library community surveyed: people want the library to offer more movies.  Unfortunately this does not come as a surprise, and I will refrain from my usual tirade regarding the demise of the written word as our society’s recreational escape mode ...  We (the Library) currently have approximately 1,800 movie titles. This represents about 4% of our collection.   This 4% circulated 68,743 times in 2011 – did you read that number correctly? – sixty eight thousand DVD loans.  That works out to about 230 movie loans per day.  We (the library) loaned more DVDs last year than we loaned non-fiction books, that includes really great cookbooks, 2011’s travel guides, how to fix your lawn mower, your boat engine, your marriage ...



Should we purchase more movies and if so, based on what criteria? Should the name of the Library change to reflect a change in collection priorities?

But, (big but) perhaps the survey data is not reflecting such a dire community perspective.  I’m going to put on my rosy tinted spectacles.  If we have 1,800 movies in our collection and we loan out about 230 per day for 3 day loans then approximately 40% of the entire collection is out of the Library when Jane or Joe Library-User is searching for a movie to take home.   That may in fact lead to the belief on Jane or Joe’s part that the Library’s movie collection is in dire need of well, movies.

I’m hopeful that if everyone were to understand how many DVDs are on loan at any one time, and that the movies on loan are most probably the latest, newest, greatest – well, perhaps everyone may resort to borrowing a book – chances are very good that they will find several of the latest, newest, greatest available on the shelf.  If however, spreading the word on the “real” number of movies available in the collection doesn’t do the trick, we may have to bite the ol’bullet and re-examine the purchasing criteria.  So, spread the numbers, we’ll see where it takes us.

And remember as J. W. Eagan once said "Never judge a book by its movie."