Making the Most of Your Video Collection: Trends in Patron Access and Resource Sharing

Video collections have undergone many changes over the recent decades, but have library circulation policies and practices kept up? The historical model for audiovisual collections at colleges and universities has been that of a reserve collection where films were purchased at faculty request as classroom support, held in closed stacks for availability to faculty while student access was limited, and rarely was resource sharing through interlibrary loan allowed. Research showed that while this model still exists, it is no longer the only model. The purpose of this article is to discuss trends seen in policies and practices of how academic libraries are providing increased collection access. Libraries are encouraged to review their policies and procedures regarding their video collections. Examples of the potential benefits of increasing user access to media materials in spite of the potential problems are described.