Fast Forward: Libraries And The Video Revolution

MTV stand back. Kathy Coster and the Library Video Network crew can put together a glitz program with the best of them. Of course, the difference here is that this program has substance. After an opening which should enlighten the most curmudgeonly director or library board that video has, indeed, arrived, the crew travels the country to look at the video operations of three different library systems: Seattle Public Library (WA), the Viking Library System (MN), and Clearwater Public Library (FL). Staff members and patrons are interviewed at each location, and the overriding impression given is that video has had a phenomenal impact on library services. Ray Serebrin, of Seattle Public Library, cautions librarians not to get too caught up in the mechanics of delivery; another AV librarian talks about the importance of collecting public performance video; and a bookmobile patron in rural Minnesota gives a moving testament about the importance of library videos and books in supplying her family's cultural and informational needs. An excellent program and a proper promotional tool for the most exciting new service in libraries in years. Highly recommended. (See Caldecott at Fifty for availability.)