LJ Audio/Video Survey 2005: The DVD Predicament

Discs boom in popularity, LJ’s 2005 media survey says, but damage and theft plague collections

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/15/2005

In most public libraries, audiovisual materials contribute enormously to circulation statistics. Libraries, according to LJ’s 2005 media survey, are responding by putting more resources into AV materials—not just video and audiobooks but even music CDs. The real boom, however, is in DVDs, which are rapidly supplanting the VHS as the format of choice and galloping ahead in circulation—rising an overall 91% in two years, while VHS circulation has decreased by 13%.

As positive as the numbers look, the emergence of DVDs in libraries is hardly an unalloyed good. Librarians responding to the survey repeatedly mentioned problems with theft and with damage. Some worried that classics on VHS were not offered on DVD. Many said they couldn’t afford to maintain both formats. Some groused that too many AV users don’t seem to check out books. And some said they had trouble meeting their library’s collection policy goals—an acquisition in response to a number of holds—when it came to video.

Of the 2,154 U.S. public libraries contacted by Reed Business Information research, 402 libraries responded—a rate of 19%. Notably, as seen on p. 39, the budget growth for AV materials outpaced that for overall materials. (Note: the apparent growth in music CDs does not apply to the 18% of respondents not including music CDs in their budgets.)

Compared with statistics gathered in LJ’s 2004 audiobook study, even though different institutions were sampled, circulation for all media has increased, especially for videos/DVDs. The percentage of audiobooks in library AV collections is dropping slightly. Given that audiobook circulation and budgets have grown, the decline in collection percentage is likely caused by libraries’ embrace of downloadable audiobooks in a library’s collection.

While VHS titles make up 69% of adult collections and 53% of circulation, they’re on the way out. DVDs account for 80% of spending. Nearly 12% of respondents have more than half of their video collections for adults in DVD format. One-third no longer buy in the VHS format, while, of the remainder, two-thirds plan to phase out VHS purchases within three years.

Before DVDs, most movies on VHS were released at the rental-store price—at least $75—and at least six months later reduced to retail, which meant libraries didn’t buy them until demand had subsided, observes Peter Cartford, AV collection development specialist at the Johnson County Library (JCL), Overland Park, KS. Because DVDs are retail products, JCL buys them at the time of release.

This has posed some challenges. “If you factor in the need to buy current popular titles, start over and rebuild the classic movie collection on DVD, and begin purchasing TV on DVD, it is easy to keep throwing money at entertainment,” Cartford says. Next year, JCL will shift its budget for movies on VHS to nonfiction DVDs.

Still, some say VHS has a value beyond longevity. For one thing, not everyone has switched to DVD. Also, observes Pauline Kehoe, director, Goshen Public Library and Historical Society, NY, “Children have a much easier time using VHS than DVDs—it requires less mature manual dexterity to load a tape.”

DVDs present other problems, too. “Some DVDs are ruined after one circulation,” observes Margaret Marshall, director of the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield, NC. “It depends on who is using the DVD (adult, teen, or child) and also the condition of their DVD player. I would say that an average of 15 to 20 checkouts is typical. [Discs with any] scratches that can’t be repaired by our little $25 machine have to go. The format is just not as durable as I hoped it would be.”

At the Malden Public Library, MA, a typical DVD lasts 40–50 circulations, reports Stacy Holder, AV/information librarian. Then again, some DVDs have lasted through more than 125 loans while others are ruined after only three or four circulations. Goshen PL’s Kehoe says so many discs come back damaged after one use that staffers joke “they are used for coasters and ­Frisbees.”

What doesn’t get damaged is at risk for theft. While libraries grapple with security issues, vendors have yet to create the perfect solution. The majority of respondents take measures like displaying only title cases or locking those cases, or using security strips (see chart on p. 40). Still, despite losses approaching six figures in some communities, some 41% of respondents said they take no special action regarding VHS tapes and 29% said the same about DVDs.

Many tactics are stopgaps. Lock cases, observes AV librarian Barry Trott at Williamsburg Regional Library, VA, may deter casual theft, “but if someone really wants to steal a DVD, they will find out a way to get around the lock case, including actually destroying the case.”

At the Elkhart PL, IN, all DVDs are shelved close to the service desk for oversight. “For a while we did package checking as you left the AV room, but that’s a staffing issue,” reports director Connie Jo Ozinga. The library is looking at RFID but wondering whether vendors can truly serve the library’s needs. The Gwinnett Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA, recently lost some 17,000 DVDs, 44 percent of the collection—mostly children’s titles, as the library does not collect feature films for adults. After various measures to increase security were deemed untenable, the library decided to send 13,000 videos to a vendor to sell, leaving 8000. Some parents protested the continued sale, and the library board was to address the issue this month.

The Clinton Macomb PL, MI, lost $92,000 in CDs and DVDs over the past five years, as several thieves removed RFID tags and sold the items at local resale shops. Some thieves placed holds on items they would then pick up but not check out. The library has pursued prosecutions of those responsible, placed laminate over the security tags, and also written the library’s name on the discs in indelible ink.

RFID is not necessarily the answer. At the Queens Borough Public Library, NY, where RFID has been implemented in two branches, DVD losses are nearly identical to those that occurred prior to RFID. Staffers speculate that “it is less a function of the physical DVD and more a function of the culture—they are small, compact, and easy to sell and copy,” says library spokeswoman Joanne King. The library is exploring and evaluating several alternatives, including a “vending”-type machine and another that works more like a jukebox.

At Los Angeles Public Library, RFID has been implemented in the Popular Library Department of the Central Library, but it doesn’t pick up the weaker signal on the tags on DVDs and CDs, reports Giovanna Mannino, assistant director, information technologies and collections. “This necessitates adding a 'booster tag’ on the case, but it still doesn’t prevent someone from sticking the actual DVD/CD in their backpack and walking out of the library.”

While some libraries give patrons three weeks to return videos, most libraries loan videos/DVDs for one week (55%) or less (27%). Libraries serving the smallest populations (25,000 or fewer) are more likely to have shorter loan periods. A small number of libraries, mainly larger ones, loan feature films for shorter periods than they do nonfiction videos.

Some 22% of libraries impose no limits on the number of items checked out, but 45% of libraries allow only one to five videos at a time. The average: ten. Nearly a quarter (22%) of respondents said they allow patrons to check out fewer DVDs than VHS titles.

Several librarians said they can’t apply the same holds policy they have for books to videos. The Williamsburg library tries to maintain a 6–1 holds-to-copies ratio but won’t consider additional copies of feature films until there are at least ten holds, reports Trott.

Libraries have grappled with charging fees for “extras” like videos, though professional tenets reject charging for access. About 15% of libraries charge a fee (most charge $1) for borrowing videos, and the distribution is fairly even among libraries of different sizes. Two-thirds of the libraries (66%), and an even larger percentage of smaller libraries, use that fee money to support the library’s video budget. One library reported that fee revenue was threatened by the rise of Netflix and other home delivery subscription services.

In libraries, entertainment (feature films and TV) trumps instructional or documentary titles, in terms of collections (68.5%), spending (71.6%), and circulation (80.2%) (see chart above). A very small fraction (1.3%) eschews feature films and offers only nonfiction videos.

As for most popular categories of nonfiction videos, the topics vary. The smallest libraries favor nature/science videos and the next smallest category (10,000 to 24,999 people) favor documentaries, while medium-sized libraries (serving 100,000 to 249,999 people) reported that the lifestyle category is tops. Still, for respondents as a whole, the top circulating category is how-to/instructional.

It’s clear that providing videos has continued to change how libraries work. In the VHS era, JCL maintained a three-day circulation period, a three-item limit, and allowed no requests, says Cartford. Then, the library waived the checkout limit, extended the circulation period to a week, and allowed holds. When DVDs joined the collection, he says, “that kept our DVD shelves very bare until recently when growth in collection size started to give patrons something to browse.”

Now, as the new iPod accepts video and more and more patrons have broadband access at home, libraries are anticipating downloadable video. Indeed, OverDrive has begun to offer educational and self-improvement titles. When feature films become available, this may post a larger paradigm shift than the move from CDs/cassettes to downloadable audiobooks. Downloadable video certainly would be welcomed by the many libraries struggling to circulate easily damaged and stolen DVDs.

Some 18% are interested in being able to provide downloadable videos, while 49% might be interested in the future. “We would be open to trying anything new that would help to minimize the damage our DVDs get,” says Malden PL’s Holder. Larger libraries have been the leaders in adopting downloadable audio, and the larger the library, the more interest in downloadable video.

Norman Oder is Editor, News, LJ