©1991-2007
Student Publications,
All rights reserved.

Last modified:

Contact:
ktruitt@uh.edu

Life & Arts

Library serves as alternative to renting

by AUSTIN HAVICAN 
The Daily Cougar

It may not be well known that M.D. Anderson Library -- the place where students check their MySpace accounts, pore over books for a good quote in that research paper due the next day and print 450 pages at a time -- has a DVD collection far superior to the nearby Blockbuster, and it's all free. 

In 2001, the University's Collection Management Committee decided that when the option is available, the library should attempt to purchase the DVD version of a film or documentary as opposed to its VHS counterpart. The selection now boasts almost 15 full shelves, most of which are hard-to-find foreign films and expensive Criterion Collection titles.

Although many of the titles can be enjoyed for entertainment purposes alone, the collection was originally created with academic purposes in mind. 

"Some of them are bought specifically for courses. A faculty member will contact a subject librarian and say, ‘Can you get me this, this and this?' A lot of the DVDs that are movies are for film courses, and others are to support a general film curriculum," Diane Bruxvoort, CMC chairwoman, said. 

One may wonder what course would require Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, but its cultural relevance and analyses allow it to stay on the shelf with the classics of European cinema, historical documentaries, animated titles like Akira, and an impressive selection of titles from the French new-wave, among many others.

Aside from satisfying film and history syllabi, the CMC is constantly working on building a fundamental film collection of important cinema.

"Our English librarian who started building this collection went to the (American Film Institute's) Best 100 American Films list and tried to complete that, and pretty much has," Bruxvoort said. "We try to buy a lot of the Criterion Collection; they're classic films that are well-packaged. We also decided we needed a collection of film noir, so we bought film noir classics."

Surprisingly, the life expectancy of the discs is pretty high, which means there is less of a chance that the discs will skip once you get them back to your living room. 

"We lose some due to people who don't return them, and then they get charged for them. We have to replace very few because of scratching or anything like that," Bruxvoort said. "People take much better care of our DVDs than Blockbuster's. It's different; you've checked it out on your account from the library. There's a different level of responsibility."

Renting DVDs from the library is a surprisingly simple process ? all one needs is a valid UH ID. Simply walk into the Reserves section of the library (on the right-hand side after the Services desk, through the glass doors) and walk down the aisle on the right-hand side of the main walkway. Students and faculty can check out up to two DVDs at a time, regardless of how many discs are in a set. The loan period is an entire week, which is two days more than both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. However, a hefty $3-per-day fine is tacked on a student's account once that week has passed.

Although the media collection shows up in the library's searchable card catalogue (http://library.uh.edu) when searching for the title or director in the keyword field, students should take five or 10 minutes to carefully browse the impressive collection. Most of the titles may seem unfamiliar to the average student, but that's all the more reason to check one out and try something other than Kevin Smith movies.

It is free, after all.

Send comments to dcshobiz@mail.uh.edu