Institutional Subscriptions -- FILMS

["Toth, Joe" <jtoth@middlebury.edu>]

The recent thread initiated by Bernie Sloan on donating 
institutional journal subscriptions drew incisive replies, from 
Eleanor Cook's "old trick" to Scott Plutchak's fraud analysis to 
Kevin Smith's "first sale" reminder. As Eleanor insists, the move 
to e-journals weakens much of the force of the issue.

I wonder about an analogous situation, that of films being 
offered for sale with both institutional and individual prices. 
When there is no choice but to obtain the item from a publisher 
insisting on dual pricing, I agree with Scott that to represent 
that you're buying for personal use a film meant to go directly 
into a library collection would be fraud, at least in common 
parlance. But what about situations in which the film is offered 
for sale by the publisher and by several vendors, some of whom do 
not adhere to the tiered pricing model? I think that, if a 
publisher chooses to distribute its work through vendors, which 
serve as retail ports on the stream of commerce, a purchasing 
agent for a library may choose to do business with any of the 
sellers he or she pleases--especially if the chosen one makes no 
reference to the status of the buyer. I admit that I have 
searched successfully for alternative vendors from which I bought 
a film for $30 that, at another source, insisted that I pay $300. 
I should emphasize that, in the purchases I'm making, I'm not 
interested in obtaining exhibition rights (if I can avoid it), as 
a public showing of a film is a form of use different from using 
it for educational purposes.

--Joe

Joe Toth
Collection Development Librarian
Middlebury College
802-443-5440
jtoth@middlebury.edu