The following is the selection policy for Guelph Public Library’s audio/visual materials:
The Guelph Public Library will acquire Audio-Visual materials to meet the cultural, instructional, informational, and leisure needs of the community recognizing the changing interests and variety of tastes and ages.
AV Selection criteria.
Because of the great diversity of materials available, no single set of criteria can be applied to all items. Some items are judged primarily in terms of artistic merit or documentation of the times, while others are selected to satisfy recreational needs of the community. Titles may be evaluated using one or more of the following criteria:
High interest
Quality of production
Canadian content
Contribution to the balance of treatment of a controversial subject
Strengths and weaknesses of the current collection
Timeliness and accuracy of the information
Budgeting consideration
Space restrictions
Awards and recommendations
Favourable reviews in recognized reviewing journals
Contemporary significance or permanent value
Literary and/or artistic merit and excellence
Recognized performer, composer, director or artist
Records diversity of thought, expression, opinions, ideas, to make creative imagination freely available to all.
Selection responsibility
Decisions relating to selection and purchase all Audio/Visual materials will be the responsibility of the Manager of Extension Services
COLLECTIONS
Video and DVD collection
The library collects VHS and DVDs to supplement the print and non-print collections and to provide information that may not be available in any other format. The library will migrate to an all Digital Video Disc (DVD) format retaining only those VHS titles that are not available in the DVD format.
Goals
The collection should be well balanced, serving the needs of the entire community. Materials will be selected for all ages & all levels of comprehension.
Materials will be considered in terms of timeliness, demand, quality, and authority
The collection will represent all sides of a wide range of issues.
Selection criteria
This collection consists of non-fiction and fiction video cassettes and DVDs in a wide variety of general subjects for all ages.
1. All general nonfiction subjects are purchased including the following:
Educational, informational, how-to, health related, travel, biography, etc.
Programs produced by network & non-premium cable TV, educational channels (e.g. A&E, Animal Planet, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, History channel, National Geographic, PBS, TLC, Travel channel, etc.)
Original Broadway plays & musicals.
Music & comedic performances appropriate for general audiences
2. Feature films
Notable Canadian productions
Films made for children & families
Films favorably reviewed by reputable, nationally recognized critics
Films judged by critics to be *Classics (production dates of 20 years or more) with some literary connection, i.e. play, book based.
Films of great cultural significance or considerable cult status
Animated cartoons appropriate for general audiences
Current releases will be considered on the basis of their literary, cinematic, and/or historical significance
3. Award winning films
Films that have won one or more of the following award will be considered for purchase.
Academy Awards
Golden Globe
Film festival entries based on reviews and relevance to collections and selection criteria
Music recordings
This collection consists of music recordings covering a wide variety of genres. The collection includes, but is not limited to, classical, country, rock, pop, jazz, gospel, humor, folk, easy listening, rhythm and blues, new age, world, movie soundtracks, holiday and children.
Book recordings
This collection consists of spoken recording of adult fiction and non-fiction in unabridged format. The fiction collection includes classics and popular fiction. The nonfiction collection covers a range of subject areas including bestsellers, instruction, self-improvement, language, etc.
New Media
From time to time new forms of AV media are introduced into the market place. Often these new products enjoy only brief popularity before losing their market to other newer forms of AV media. Many of these newer forms of AV media require expensive playback equipment for use. New AV media forms are studied carefully to assess their suitability for public library use, and sufficient time is allowed to properly determine whether they will receive lasting and widespread public acceptance before collection of such new forms of media are added to the library.
When deciding whether to replace or augment existing formats with new media, the following factors are considered:
Anticipated improvements in information storage and retrieval
User demand
Quality of the product
Ease of use
Equipment requirements
Cost processing requirements
Maintenance
Retention/Weeding
Evaluation of the Audio/Visual collection is an on-going process. The following criteria considered when making the decision to retain, replace, or weed are:
Significance and relevance to current holdings
Presence of multiple copies
Titles in a series
Circulation statistics
Age and physical condition
Timeliness of materials
Shelf space
New technology.