Here at the James Kennedy Public Library we have a wonderful movie collection with items for every member of your household no matter what their age.  In particular, our movie collection for adults offers a variety to choose from including classic movies, independent films, foreign films, comedies, romances, mysteries, horror, and action.  Because of the popularity of our movie collection we are starting to make some changes to it, which we hope will benefit the patrons and encourage them to check out more movies.

Currently, the movie collection for adults contains about 500 movies on VHS tape.  We are in the process of replacing 300 of those movies with a copy on DVD.  We anticipate completing this by the end of the year.  Once the DVD copies are processed and available for patrons to check out the VHS copies will be removed from the collection.  The remaining 200 VHS movies that are not replaced will remain in the collection at this time.  We have chosen to remove most of the VHS tapes from the collection for several reasons. The first is that the VHS format is no longer a popular one or a technically supported one.  Second, VHS tapes are not available for purchase anymore and VHS players are not readily available.  Third, our patrons are showing a preference for the DVD format.  The last reason for making this transition is the space that we will free up once the VHS tapes, which are twice the size of a DVD, are pulled from the shelves.  This leaves more room for more movies!

Another big change to our DVD collection is the addition of TV series on DVD. We currently have a small collection of TV series available for patrons to check out and this collection is growing rapidly.  Some series being added in the next few weeks are The Sopranos, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island, Charmed, and The X-Files.  Currently, all the TV series are housed on a spinner rack next to the movie collection.  In the next few weeks, the TV series collection will move onto the shelves after the movie collection.

The final big change to our DVD collection is how the DVDs are checked out.  Currently, the patrons pull the movie case that they want off the shelves and bring it to the circulation desk to check out.  We then find the movie disc in the drawers behind the circulation desk, pull it, and put it into the movie case for the patron to take home.  Starting now patrons will find that when they check out a movie the disc and the clear plastic sleeve it is housed in will now both be put into the DVD movie case.  The disc will no longer be placed onto the plastic hub in the case.  We hope that this will extend the life the discs, by not subjecting them to the stress of being pushed on and pried off the plastic hubs. We also hope that this will increase the speed in which the staff can find the movie the patron wants and get them checked out and on their way.  Because we are now sending the disc home in a plastic sleeve within the movie case we are expecting that all three pieces (the disc, the sleeve, and the movie case) are returned and we reserve the right to  charge the patron if one of the pieces is not returned.

As always, we will gladly accept donations of movies or TV series on DVD and we send a big Thank You to all of those who have donated and helped us improve our collection.  However, we are starting to remove VHS tapes from the movie collection, so while we will still accept them as donations they will automatically be given to the Friends of the Library for their book sale.  No movies on VHS will be added to the collection.  As all of these changes to the DVD collection are being put into place we just want to thank you for your patience and please let us know if there is something you think we should add to the collection.