Two years of videotapes acquisition in Loire-Atlantique

Since 1986, the number of videocenters has been increasing : 65 were listed at the end of 1988, among them 17 in central lending libraries. The last one : the Central lending library of Loire-Atlantique represents one of the most important lending collection in France, with about 1 200 tapes. However, libraries wishing to lend videotapes come up against difficulties. The legislation for audiovisual is very complicated and does not take into account the loan free of charge. Therefore, libraries are forced to buy tapes at the same highest possible price as clubs. Video products, which are often uninteresting and sometimes defective, have a very bad census, poor circulation and follow-up. In such a deplorable context, central lending libraries have an important part to play, as they are now an interesting clientèle. The author assignes four missions : to spread the cinema patrimony, widen the concept of patrimony to other films than classics, make video documents available in all the fields and provide a general idea of the regional production.
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