The Friedman Study Center will become home to a new DVD check-out service, allowing students to borrow movies for 24-hour periods. The service will begin by Sept. 5, the first day of classes in the fall.
Students will be able to check out DVDs free of charge, said University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi. Though DVDs can only be checked out for 24 hours, there will be no consequence for returning a DVD late.
Hemmasi said she hopes students will abide by the 24-hour time limit, despite the lack of consequences for not adhering to the rule. "If (students) check things out and then keep them for a week, that really ruins the program," she said, adding that the library might look to more strictly enforce the policy in the future.
The initiative will start with about 40 DVDs. The plan is to add about 20 new movies per month to the service, which should house a collection of over 200 DVDs by next May, Hemmasi said.
The service will be jointly financed by the Division of Campus Life and Student Services and the University library.
A list of all titles owned by the library will be available online, and the movies will also be listed on Josiah, the University's library catalog, Hemmasi said.
Because the service is starting off as a pilot program, its survival and potential growth depend on student feedback, Hemmasi said.
Brian Becker '09, chair of the campus life committee of the Undergraduate Council of Students, conceived the idea for a DVD service run out of the Sciences Library last spring and has been working to implement the service, The Herald reported in February.
UCS pushed strongly for the service, Becker said. Hemmasi said students worked with Associate University Librarian Florence Doksansky; Steven Lavallee, co-leader of the library's gateway services department and the person responsible for the Friedman Study Center; and Russell Carey '91 MA'06, interim vice president for campus life and student services.
Ultimately, Hemmasi said, she was the one who made the decision to implement the initiative. "In talking with Russell, I decided that we should move forward with this. We decided that it's something students actually want," she said.
Hemmasi acknowledged "there had been reluctance in the past to use library funds to buy entertainment material," but said she felt current movies represent modern culture, thereby providing some educational value as well. "We're not going to spend all our money (on entertainment)," she said.
Though the service will be located in the SciLi's basement in the Friedman Study Center, Becker had initially proposed that the DVDs be housed in Media Services on the 14th floor of the SciLi. But after discussing his idea with students, Becker said he realized keeping DVDs in the SciLi's top floor would be inconvenient. Hemmasi agreed, telling The Herald the study center will have "much easier access for students."
Megan Whelan '09.5 said the prospect of a free DVD service in the SciLi was "exciting." She seemed doubtful, though, that the service would be popular if its DVD collection remained small.
"I think a lot of people have DVDs in their rooms," she said, adding that students' personal collections might be larger than the library's collection, at least initially.
Billy Krimmel '08 said that he would use the service, but not very often. "I use the Internet links," he said, referring to sites that stream movies online.
Becker had originally proposed locating DVD kiosks around campus, which would require a credit card swipe in order to rent the DVDs inside. Hemmasi said there are currently no plans to install these kiosks.
