Working with colleagues at Middlebury in a joint project this summer, the William Tell Coleman Library has added the Institute’s VHS video collection (more than 2000 items) to the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC).
The primary purpose of the project was to increase access to the collection for faculty and students by converting the existing Media Services data on the collection from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into a set of MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) records. The project leveraged Middlebury cataloging expertise, made full use of the recent updated Millennium server’s capacities, preserved all useful data and presented it in a simple and web searchable format. After several months of hard work by librarians on both campuses, under the guidance of Terry Simpkins and his talent cataloging staff at Middlebury, MIIS faculty and students are now able to find, identify, select, and obtain VHS video materials in the same way that they search for printed books and periodicals. The project has greatly enhanced the usability of the video collection on and beyond campus. A portion of the commercial tapes of documentary videos, performances, performance art, and feature films will be added to our library holdings on the largest union catalog — OCLC’s WorldCat. Video tapes can be checked out at the Lab and Media Services Center for 24 hours. They will not be lent to other libraries except to Middlebury through interlibrary loan.
–from the Library
Copyright note:
The video cassettes and other A/V materials in the library are subject to the Revised Copyright Act of 1976, Title 17 of the U.S. Code, Sections 101-810, which took effect on January 1, 1978. The library prohibits the use of these materials in any way that violates Federal or State laws.
