From: Stephen Kent Jusick (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Nov 13 2007 - 22:37:25 PST
If the Donnell media center will be relocated to a research branch
there are serious questions about access. Most research libraries
don't circulate material. It can only be consulted on-site.
DMC has many great 16mm prints and VHS and 3/4 tape in its
circulating collection. That's living material! I'm a heavy borrower
and love the AVAILABILITY of their collection.
When they buy the films and videos, DMC also negotiates for public
performance rights.
That's part of what allows them to circulate the material to the
public, who can show it for free.
How amazing. This is not to be lost.
I know that the Media Center staff care. The question is whether the
higher ups in admin do!
I heard that the library quietly has ended its acquisition of 16mm
film. I think that happened
before Marie Nesthus retired. (I believe David Callahan has replaced her.)
Don't forget that Donnell also has an auditorium, which presents FREE
public screenings
several times a week, sometimes with filmmakers in person. It's
doubtful that this mission would be part of a research collection!
The rumor I heard was that the collection might be merged with the
branch at Lincoln Center,
but again, that collection is notoriously closed.
Precisely because NYPL does not seem to know what they're going to do
is why we must mobilize now to keep the media center's many functions
available to the public.
Stephen Kent Jusick
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.