Board says ‘no’ to TV series at Upper library

In spite of urging from its patrons, the Upper Sandusky Community Library will not be adding TV series to its collection of DVD movies.
The library currently offers 2,935 DVD movies, but Director Joanne Gilmore said patrons have been asking for TV series.
“They’ve been requesting TV series a lot,” Gilmore said during Tuesday afternoon’s board of trustees meeting. “… Several patrons are asking and I guess the question is, if people are asking for them, should we be supplying them?”
Gilmore said purchasing TV series could be costly.
“If it’s a whole season, it’s usually 40 or 50 bucks,” Gilmore said. “… It is a lot more expensive than newly-released movies.”
Library representatives said adding more to its DVD collection could cause storage problems.
“If we had the space, I think it would be nice to fill the need if it truly is a need, but if space is the main concern and there’s other concerns, maybe we shouldn’t get them,” board member Jenny Romich said.
Although no official vote was taken on the matter, board members spoke out against the idea of purchasing TV series.
“You could make the case that movies are educational, but as a former English teacher, my philosophy is if you’re going to spend the money, you should spend it on books,” board member Jim Wheeler said.
“That’s what there are video rental places for and Netflix and all that other stuff,” board member Jill Logsdon added.
Patrons may continue to borrow TV series from other libraries through the Upper Sandusky Community Library’s website.
In other business, board members also discussed possibly expanding its service area to include the village of Nevada. The library currently serves the Upper Sandusky Exempted Village Schools District.
“When I was talking to a gentleman at the state library, he said there are some unserved areas in Wyandot County that we could apply with the state library to have included in our district if we wanted to go in that direction,” Gilmore said. “The Nevada area is theoretically unserved and when we went for our levy (in 2009), there were a number of people from the Nevada area who wanted yard signs, but we told them it didn’t make any sense to give them yard signs since they wouldn’t be part of the taxed area. They were surprised at that because they consider this their library.”
Gilmore will contact the State Library of Ohio to learn more about the process of expanding the Upper Sandusky Community Library’s service area.
The Marion Public Library is seeking to extend its district in Marion County, Gilmore said.

By CHANDA NEELY
City editor

Posted by Daily Chief on July 18, 2012. Filed under Local News,Recent Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry