It may be the best movie rental place in town. The selection is huge and the prices -- seven nights out with the scan of a library card -- are unbeatable.
But there's a drawback. Most of the movies at the downtown library's Audio-Visual/Talking Book Center are on VHS, and they're rapidly wearing out with age.
Library Director Gary Swint says the tapes won't be making the move into the new building going up across James Brown Boulevard. The audiovisual department in the new main branch, scheduled to open in June 2010, will have DVDs only, and the disc collection will get a major boost thanks to the sales tax referendum passed last month.
Blockbuster phased out VHS years ago, and other rental chains followed suit. The tapes at the downtown library, though, about 4,000 of them, make for a selection few commercial stores can match.
While rental marts and grocery store kiosks focus on new releases, movie buffs can find a range of VHS titles going back decades at the library, such as Jason and the Argonauts , Dr. No , The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean , Marathon Man , The Conversation and Better Off Dead .
Also on tape are National Geographic shows, Star Trek episodes, Three Stooges shorts and Looney Tunes and Charlie Brown cartoons.
The best of the lot are likely to show up in the new library on DVD, Mr. Swint said. The $24 million building will get another $1 million from SPLOST VI to pay for an anti-theft tagging system, about 30,000 new books and audiovisual materials.
Mr. Swint said he plans to spend about $100,000 on the last category, and during the next few months he'll decide how much will go toward new DVDs and how much will go toward music CDs and books on tape/CD. (The library hasn't made the leap to Blu-ray. Mr. Swint said he's waiting to see if the technology takes hold in the market.)
The library's growing collection of about 3,000 DVDs is already more assorted than the typical video store, ranging from newer films such as Gran Torino and I'm Not There to classics such as Ben-Hur, Hud and Eraserhead .
As for the VHS tapes, those that are still watchable will be shipped to other library branches, and those that aren't are headed for the trash bin. Mr. Swint said he's considering selling some.
Though efforts will be made to replace as many as possible on DVD, many won't be because they're no longer in demand.
Mr. Swint said he's far more likely to buy an Alfred Hitchcock movie on disc than the 1987 Bette Midler/Shelly Long movie Outrageous Fortune , which hardly ever gets checked out.
"For me to try to duplicate everything we have wouldn't make sense," he said.
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Libraries should encourage reading, not watching Dr. No and Eraserheads. There is enough television around that tax supported libraries shouldn't be encouraging even more time in front of the tube.
i dont understand how eraserhead would appeal to anyone not on some sort of mind altering substance
And Eraserhead is a classic? How in the world does it compare to Ben Hur?
Eraserhead is an awesome film. If it were up to you's we'd only have paintings of pretty flowers, Norman Rockwell would dawn just about every magazine cover, and comic sans would be recognized as the national font!
Miles, you miss the point. Movies are readily available. There is no need for our library to have them. I'm in favor of library money being spent on modern, post-modern literature,..almost any literature. The kid in the jersey would be much better off reading Malcom X, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski than spending even more time in front of his TV.
books are readily available as well.
Treerock, I disagree. Buying books to read once or twice is not something most will do if they read a lot. Movies on TV are ubiquitous.
You may disagree, but most do exactly that! Where do all the book at all the book stores in all the towns in all the countries go? They are bought! And they have been doing just that for hundreds of years, they are everywhere. But you are right, I miss your point, film on TV, books on tape and music on CD are ubiquitous and should be removed from libraries.
I have no problem whatsoever with books on tape, etc. Some people have reading problems or listen while driving and so on. But back to the point of taking resources away from providing books in libraries. I know there are a few second hand book stores around town, but how does one get a relatively recent best seller except in a library...or buying it? How does one find all the reference books necessary in one place to write a paper except in a library? Plus, the larger point is to teach a love of reading to young people, not to encourage them to watch more movies on the tube.
Anyone remember bookmobiles? I hope they still have them. I willl never forget when it came around on Acabee Dr. and parked there for an hour once every two weeks. I, seriously, believe I'm the only one who ever climbed those flip down steps who ever went to college. After having problems at my house and with money not flowing easily, I once thought I owed the bookmobile lady 3 bucks in fines for a book I kept too long and feared telling my mother about, but the kindly lady (I could recognize the nice one from the mean one) said I only owed them 3 dimes...30 cents. It puzzled me for awhile, but I later understood why she worked in a liberal arts thing. I'm sure she would have liked to have given us movies to check out. Okay, I see y'alls point. I pass.
We are not taking about TV, the story is about film or cinema,TV just happens to be the media used to watch. Does it matter if its a screen or television? The collection at libraries also includes non-fiction and documentary, also viewed on a televison(a tool) like the tape recorder and flash memory. Books can be downloaded and reference for papers done online.
So Riverman is now the arbiter of what we SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be reading and watching on the public's dime? I think in making his "larger point" he misses the actual point. If it didn't circulate the library wouldn't have so much of it. The library's livelihood lies in giving the public what it wants, inasmuch as that's possible. And Riverman is just one of that public. I'll even be generous and give him two say-sos. He's still outnumbered. And the books he cited, their merits aside, are not widely read. Most readers go for Janet Evanovich and the like - check the sales for yourself. So should the public be dictated to, or should our library make the effort to keep EVERYBODY as happy as possible? By the way, I happen to know that the local library has more material on Charles Bukowski in video form than in print, because I've looked for both.
During economic recessions, the library can be the heart of the city. Raise a child to explore the wonders that can be found in a library, and you have raised a well-rounded adult who does not protest movies on the shelves of public libraries.