Happy Anniversary
By Mary Corrado
Editor
On the 20th anniversary of Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Ave., the entire collection of 20,000 videos — which accounts for about half of the library's circulation — is being wiped out, by order of the Chicago Public Library headquarters downtown (CPL). Librarians have been ordered to throw away fully half of the videos by the end of this year, and then throw out the rest of them next year. In place of the videos, Sulzer is to receive a mere 250 new DVDs, identical to those arriving at the other 52 libraries in the city. Then, each month Sulzer will receive 16 more DVDs. The DVDs are selected by headquarters and in no way match the diversity and appeal of the current video collection. This forced weeding, which reduces the video collection to that of a branch library, appears to be a distinct effort to minimize the importance of Sulzer Regional Library. It also bears a frightening resemblance to the massive book destruction that occurred in 2001, also by orders of downtown. (See sidebar: "History of affronts to Sulzer.")
The practice of buying only DVDs and not videos is based on the assumption that everyone now has a DVD player, which is far from true. In particular, Chicago Public Schools are generally equipped with video cassette recorders but virtually never have DVD players, and teachers account for a great deal of the circulation of Sulzer's videos. Many, many patrons as well have VCRs but not DVD players.
Why destroy the excellent, existing, paid-for collection of videos? The new DVDs will only require a few feet of shelf space. This is a collection that Chicago magazine, in its July 2001 issue, called the "customer-friendliest deal" for videos in Chicago, carrying about 20,000 titles in categories as diverse as how-to, sports, music, children's programming, foreign theatrical films, and many PBS favorites—all available for one week, and many free. Sulzer was ahead of national trend of using videos and audio tapes. Former director Leah Steele worked closely with area schools to meet the demands of the teachers' curricula in creating the collection.
By cutting out the videos, CPL will certainly reduce Sulzer's circulation, and that may be part of the rationale for the purge. The remarkable circulation at Sulzer — for example, in May 2001, total circulation figures showed Sulzer had circulation 72 percent of that of Harold Washington Library Center (HWLC), even though HWLC is more than 11 times as large — seems to irritate CPL, which appears to want headquarters to be the one with the impressive circulation.
During the book purge of 2001, a furious Ald. Gene Schulter (47th) said, "...they're taking out books that we worked very hard to get here in the first place...Are we properly handling the taxpayers' dollars?" This sentiment applies equally to the current destruction of videos that were carefully chosen to establish an outstanding collection. In fact, patrons at the main library, Harold Washington, are often advised to visit Sulzer to obtain the videos they want.
Trashing the video collection will blur the distinction between Sulzer Regional Library and the 50 branch libraries. This draconian action increases the fear that downtown wants to change Sulzer into just a branch, a fear based on the history of affronts. After all, what distinguishes a regional from a branch library? The collections and the specialists. Downtown has already attacked the books, and now it's going after the video collection. CPL has also eliminated every Librarian V position from Sulzer, which represents the highly trained and experienced subject specialists.
Another problem with the shipment of identical, centrally-ordered DVDs being sent to 53 libraries is the waste and inefficiency of it. For example, Sulzer currently has one video about Huey Long, and it circulates only about six times a year, even though it is the only one in the system. Now CPL has purchased 53 DVDs of this same presentation of Huey Long. How much demand really exists for this? Do Chicago residents really need 53 copies of "How to Lay a Hardwood Floor" or "How to Take Pictures with a Digital Camera" either? CPL thinks so.
There is no quid pro quo. For example, when Civil War videos are thrown out, they are not replaced with Civil War DVDs. No, the DVDs are primarily entertainment, fiction and new movies, and they are not chosen by the local librarians who know the local needs. They are similar to what is available at any Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. In fact, some of the material on discarded videos is not available on DVD and may never be.
Whenever librarians weed a collection, they consider how often and how recently an item has been borrowed. Some of the items already canned at Sulzer were borrowed within the last six months, meaning they are still desirable to patrons — but they had to go because the CPL is demanding that half the videos be out of there by December 31. (And NOT sold off to customers — the directive is to trash them.)
In order to follow orders, librarians are first discarding any duplicates, but there are certainly times when duplicates are needed for schools. They are also reluctantly discarding the less popular videos, even though some items that circulate infrequently really should still remain as a resource in a regional library —being regional and not a branch. Contrary to CPL's assumptions, most patrons cannot easily run to Harold Washington Library for all but the most popular videos. Many unabridged books on tape have been tossed — even though they cost $70, $90, $150, even $180 each, and even though they are on heavy duty tape to last through many uses, and even though they are often borrowed.
The endangered video collection is quite impressive, with sections about Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Civilization, World and U. S. History, many countries, fiction, nonfiction, young adult videos, children's videos, Spanish videos for kids, international films, theatrical videos, classics, silent films, Shakespeare, American Playhouse, short stories, dance, exercise, sports, parenting. One can browse and find English as a Second Language, Professional Kickboxing, The Human Body in Action: Digestive and Excretory Systems, Gandhi, Sing Along with Israel, Woodstock, Pyromania, Losing It All: The Reality of Alzheimer's, Pre-GED Science, Basic French, Know Your Antiques, and Dealing with Drugs: Coping with Peer Pressure. This rich variety is being replaced with shiny, bland DVDs such as Pregnancy for Dummies, Pilates, A.M. and P.M. Yoga, Dr. Martin Luther King, Frank Lloyd Wright, The Life of Mammals, Fahrenheit 911, UFOs, and the Statue of Liberty. A set of five DVDs about the American West is part of the original shipment. Five discs multiplied by 53 libraries makes that 265 DVDs about the American West just purchased with taxpayer money.
During the infamous book purge of 2001, Studs Terkel visited Sulzer. Among the thrown out books was his "American Dreams, Lost and Found," as well as Mike Royko's "Sez Who? Sez Me," which has an introduction by Terkel. His comments about the book purge also apply to the current video purge: "...the moral of this is that community involvement is what it's all about. We've seen weeding with a capital W and I think the community needs to be involved and consulted anytime you plan such a large effort. What you've done is stop further degradation and nothing else should go on here without community involvement."
The morale of the besieged librarians is at an all-time low. The destruction of all they've worked to establish and nurture is proceeding. Is there any stopping CPL? |
