[Publib] buying TV series

[~M~]

>>>>>I apologize if this has been covered before, but what is your opinion on libraries providing tv series in their dvd collections?  With dwindling dollars available, I'm finding I resent being asked to purchase a series such as NCIS that is freely available on television, but costs as much as a couple of cinematic films for us to purchase. However, where do we draw the line?  Are we only highbrow and purchase PBS and BBC?  Or only Showtime and HBO because the general public does not have access?  Just wondering if anyone out there is grappling with this as well.  Thank you for any and all input!>>>>

I am only a library student so I would need to answer from the POV of
a user -- personally I LOVE that my local library has TV series on
DVD. Sometimes I discover a TV show when it is several seasons in and
I like to watch the seasons I missed. Sometimes I just really love the
show and I want to watch it start to finish with no commercials. Some
people don't have DVRs and when they want to watch a show that they
are never home for, the DVD is a great option. I really wish I could
have gotten all of Sex and the City from my my local library -- then I
would not have had to buy a Netflix subscription in order to watch it.
I realize it's syndicated now but it is so chopped up it's hardly
worth watching like that. And yes some people can't afford cable so
being able to check out The Sopranos is wonderful.

I can certainly understand the crunch of the library budget issues and
those concerns. If I may make an argument, this is a subject I am
rather passionate about. Since you wonder if you should only buy PBS
or BBC and "highbrow" shows, or maybe that movies are more worthy of
library funding than TV shows. Here is the thing -- in a movie you can
watch a character grow and develop for two hours and that's it. On a
TV show, you can watch a character grow and develop for years and
years, and their relationships with other characters grow and develop,
and an entire universe created for them to live in -- you can't do
that with movies. One of my favorite shows was Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, which ran for 7 years. In that show, Buffy starts out as a 15
year old girl who goes to high school and lives with her mom after her
parents' divorce. She makes a couple of friends at school and of
course they have their adventures. In 7 years we, the audience, got to
see Buffy grow up, sleep with her first boyfriend, have him reject her
horribly the "morning after", deal with her mother's death, she starts
sleeping with a guy she hates, she graduates from high school, goes to
college, she gets dumped, she runs away from home, suddenly gets a
sister she never knew she had. Meanwhile her friends are going through
the same things, growing up, falling in love, getting their hearts
broken, making horrible mistakes, trying to figure out what they want
to do with their lives, deciding they're gay, having loved ones die.
This is life, the same life we all live. You know, you can't see that
in a movie. On a really good TV series, you get to step into a whole
new world and actually live in it over a long period of time. And that
is art, too.

And the other thing I should probably mention is, what do your users
want? Bc you can buy a lot of NOVA on DVD but if no one checks them
out that would be a waste of money. Since the library is for the user.

Thanks for letting me procrastinate on this paper I was supposed to be
writing a bit longer.

Michelle in IL