Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Should I pass the baton from Netflix?

Teachers come to me all the time, as well they should, to locate video and DVDs for use in their classroom. For example, our high school English teacher was looking for Oedipus Rex to show to her class. Colleagues through interlibrary loan, however, are not able to loan their copies due to public performance limitations; the same with the local community college.

So I logged into my Netflix account, and there a copy sits ready to wing its way to my home. So I'm thinking, why not set up a Netflix account for my library to borrow movies and videos for my classroom teachers? The price is right, the delivery is swift, and the use is non-commercial. Am I missing something?

I looked around for some precedents and I see a blurb in the recent Library Journal that cited a few public libraries that use Netflix to both review possible purchases and as a service for their borrowers.

Are any of you folks using Netflix at your libraries? Do you see any glaring issues I should deliberate over?

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