As our collections grow and evolve, trying to figure out how to juggle them is a never-ending puzzle. Especially in small, old buildings like ours, we have to make the most of every square foot. One new strategy we’re utilizing is archival boxes and paper sleeves for disks. The image featured above is 326 dvds that we have added to the collection over the past couple weeks. Some of them are donations. Others are items that were previously weeded due to lack of space, but never discarded in case we found a way to circulate them again. This is the way.
To compare, the image below is approximately the same number of dvds spread out over 8 shelves:
The disks we store in boxes are not for public browsing, but they are findable in the catalog and patrons across Massachusetts can place holds on them. When we retrieve one to fill a hold, we place it in a special acrylic sleeve to protect it while it circulates. And it works for anything on disk: cds, dvds, blurays, and games!
All of this is to say that our capacity to store (and thus share) music and movies has gone from small to effectively limitless. And we want to collect as much as possible. So any and all donations of disk media are greatly appreciated right now. The more obscure, the better! This is how we build interesting, unique inventories: like the best collection of turn-of-the-millenium death metal in CWMARS: https://wowbrary.org/nu.aspx?p=6074-573-CDS. On the flip side, don’t forget to keep an eye on the catalog as the collection grows. Place holds. Borrow things. Call us to get added to the Thursday delivery list! Cancel your streaming subscription!