Acquiring Minds Want to Know: The Acquisitions Process of Videos and CD-ROMS.

Presented by Sally Mason-Robinson, National Video Resources
Merle J. Slyhoff, University of Pennsylvania Law Library
Julia Gammon, University of Akron

Reported by Diane Kachmar, Florida Atlantic University

Mason-Robinson stressed the following points for adding a new media format (like DVD) to one's library:

1. Economy of scale. The library can only make this decision after a needs assessment and specific tracking of consumer trends.

2. Financial support of the institution, which includes budget approval for software and hardware and additional staff and their training, if needed.

3. Product sufficiency and quality.

4. Equipment. The product should be readily available and have sufficient tech support for library use.

5. The actual use that the product will have by the users. The company should have a good history of supporting its product in direct proportion to the number of users expected to use the product.

Mason-Robinson also outlined an easy guide for writing a video collection development policy:

1. Include the library's mission statement.

2. Give the library's demographic composition, including the size and characteristics of the student body, the age group served, the ethnic and racial makeup, and the languages spoken.

3. Identify the community economic base as it affects the school's curriculum.

4. Show that the library's video budget is a percentage of all totals in the budget and is directly proportional to the video circulation percentage.

5. State who is responsible for video selection.

6. Show what criteria will be used to select these materials.

7. Delineate the makeup of the video collection showing what it contains, whether or not it is adult or children's material, popular or documentary/informational material, what interest and needs of the population it serves and whether or not there are any special collections.

8. Address what formats (i.e., VHS, DVD) are offered, what the circulation restrictions are, including length of loan.

9. Include how many (of each format) may be borrowed, what the late lost or damaged fees are and whether or not the collection can be interlibrary loaned.

10. Clearly state access issues including the provisions on circulation to minors, the freedom to view statement, and the procedure to follow for challenged material.

11. Add a readily understandable periodic collection evaluation with a clearly delineated deaccession process.

This summarized guide can be found in full in Developing and Managing Video Collections by Sally Mason-Robinson (New York: Neal Schuman,1996).

The second speaker Merle J. Slyhoff of the University of Pennsylvania Law Library spoke on how to identify videos and CD-ROMs for selection and handed out a bibliography of selection tools. Some of the general resources listed included: AFVA Evaluations, AV Marketplace, The TLA Film and Video guide, Booklist, Bowkers Complete Video Directory, Catalog of Captioned Educational Videos and Films, CD-ROM Finder, CD-ROMs in Print, Children's Software Finder, Children's Video Report, Best of the Best for Children, Educational Film and Video Locator, Roger Ebert's Video Companion, Faxon's Guide to Electronic Media, Film and Video Finder, Gale Directory of Databases, Best Videos for Children and Young Adults, CD-ROM Sourcebook, Landers Film and Video Reviews, Publisher's Weekly, RLIN, School Library Journal, Video Librarian, The Video Sourcebook plus 46 other book, journal and CD-ROM titles.

Slyhoff's list is quite extensive and also included subject specialized resources on feminism, business, law, science, health care, silent films, gays and lesbians, horror films, silent films, guides to family values, what people rent, and the disabled. The bibliography concludes with two pages of Web resources like the Internet Movie Database, Movie Review Query Engine, Media Resource Center, and online video sellers like Reel.com, and video online.

Slyhoff talked about her experiences using these selection tools and which one's had been the most helpful to her. She invited the group to join the two ALA Video Round table electronic discussion lists - Videolib and Videonews. Both lists can be subscribed to from http://library.berkeley.edu/MRC/vrtlists.html.

She concluded her talk with the statement that there is no one place to find the elusive video title that a particular faculty member wants ordered, but a good knowledge of the working tools available and knowledge that video searching can be hit or miss and requires much perseverance is a good quality to have when doing this kind of verification work. A short question and answer session of shared experiences with the various jobbers followed her talk.

Julia Gammon of the University of Akron, the final speaker, talked about license agreements. Using her own institution's policy, she stated that all license agreements should contain the following elements:

1. Should state clearly what access rights are being acquired by the licensee - permanent use of the content or access rights only for a defined period of time.

2. Should recognize and not restrict or abrogate the rights of the licensee or its user community permitted under copyright law. The licensee should make clear to the licensor those uses critical to its particular users including but not limited to, printing, downloading, and copying.

3. Should recognize the intellectual property rights of both the licensee and the licensor.

4. Should not hold the licensee liable for unauthorized uses of the licensed resource by its users, as long as the licensee has implemented reasonable and appropriate methods to notify its user community of use restrictions.

5. Should be willing to undertake reasonable and appropriate methods to enforce the terms of access to a license resource.

6. Should fairly recognize those access enforcement obligations which the licensee is able to implement without unreasonable burden. Enforcement does not violate the property and confidentiality of authorized users.

7. Should be responsible for establishing policies that create an environment in which authorized users make appropriate use of licensed resources and for carrying out due process when it appears that a use may violate the agreement

8. Should require the licensor to give the licensee notice of any suspected or alleged license violations that come to the attention of the licensor and allow a reasonable time for the licensee to investigate and take corrective action, if appropriate.

9. Should not require the use of the authentication system that is a barrier to access by authorized users.

10. When permanent use of a resource has been licensed, should allow the licensee to copy data for the purposes of preservation and/or the creation of a usable archival copy. If a license agreement does not permit the licensee make a usable preservation copy, a license agreement should specify who has the permanent archival responsibility for the resource and under what conditions the licensee may access or refer users to the archival copy.

11. The terms of a license should be considered fixed at the time the license is signed by both parties. If the terms are subject to change, the agreement should require the licensor or licensee to notify the other party in a timely and reasonable fashion of any such changes before they are implemented, and permit either party to terminate the agreement if the changes are not acceptable.

12. Should require the licensor to defend, indemnify and hold the licensee harmless from any action based on a claim that use of the resource in accordance with the license infringes any patent, copyright, trademark or trade secret of any third party.

13. The routine collection of use data by either party to a license agreement should be predicated upon disclosure of such collection activities to the other party and must respect laws and institutional policies regarding confidentiality and privacy.

14. Should not require the licensee to adhere to unspecified terms in a separate agreement between the licensor and a third party unless the terms are fully reiterated in the current license or fully disclosed and agreed to by the licensee.

15. Should provide termination rights that are appropriate to each party.

Gammon then reiterated some points to remember in the negotiation procedure again using her own college as the example. After obtaining the license agreement, review it with legal counsel, if available. Then send it back with your revisions if necessary. Contact the publisher within a month, if no reply and keep checking monthly until a reply is received. Date and record each transaction. Sign the agreed upon contract. File the contract. Gammon then gave her list of bottom-line considerations when reviewing license agreements:

1. Any term relating to users must be inclusive enough to cover all authorized clients and patron for the library, including those in other branches.

2. The library will determine the authorized site issues to insure inclusion of distance education.

3. The library will differentiate use of technology for usage.

4. The library will insist on refund and pro rated return in otherwise excluded.

5. The library will not accept one-sided agreements.

6. The library must be able to use material in the classroom.

7. The materials must be able the circulate, if appropriate format.

8. Database serial articles must have the same privileges for ILL. as subscriptions.

9. The library will provide reasonable effort to notify patrons of use conditions and will participate in monitoring uses, but not at the inconvenience of our staff.

10. The library will enter into agreements, but will not seek them out. Responsibility for initiating agreements rests with the producer or the vendor.

11. The library has rights to reproduce, prepared derivative lists, distribute through circulation and other loans, use in classrooms, use in performances, use in the classroom, etc.

12. The library will comply with, and insist on, fair use clauses.

13. The library will determine authorized uses of a product.

14. The library will seek archival rights to maintain permit access.

The author and editors do not maintain links to World Wide Web resources.

ISSN 1069-6792
Revised: 9/30/99
URL: http://wings.buffalo.edu/publications/mcjrnl/v6n2/alacquire.html