by Tricia Carey
In welcome news for film study faculty and students, the library has resumed lending items from the Film Study Center’s large collection.
The collection contains nearly 40,000 DVDs, more than 4,000 Blu-ray discs and close to 6,000 VHS tapes. It spans the history of cinema, encompasses work from more than 160 countries, and includes about 3,000 items from the field of television.
How to request videos
Staff, faculty, and students should place requests in Orbis and Quicksearch for videos, DVDs and blu-ray discs from the Film Study Center (FSC) collection, specifying any one of the available pickup locations. Request for delivery to residential colleges, graduate student housing, or home addresses in the U.S. is also an option.
Loan periods for the Film Study Collection have been extended to align with the longer loan periods for other library materials, including options for renewal.
Return to service desks
To avoid damage, videotapes and discs should be returned only to library service desks—not bookdrops.
Library staff who process video requests follow COVID-19 protocols for material handling, and returned videos are quarantined for 48 hours before being discharged and made available for checkout again. Library users should not attempt to clean or disinfect collection materials.
Library users who are not in New Haven may keep collection materials until they return to campus. (Fines and late fees will be waived.) Off-campus users who need to return materials sooner should contact Ask Yale Library for other return options.
In-library viewing option
Viewing stations for DVDs, blu-ray discs, and VHS tapes are available on the ground floor of Gilmore Music Library. Headphones may be checked out from the Music Library service desk between 10 am and 6 pm Monday through Thursday, and 10 am to 5 pm on Friday; users may also bring their own headphones at any time, including evening and weekend hours. Viewing stations require headphones with a mini jack connection. To maintain adequate physical distance between users, only two viewing stations can be used simultaneously.
While its staff have been providing research services and support remotely since March, FSC offices, collections, and viewing rooms in the Whitney Humanities Center could not be adapted to meet reduced occupancy and physical distancing requirements. Over the summer, library staff were able to retrieve video materials from the collection for course reserves, but the collection was otherwise unavailable to the campus community.
Contact Film Study Center staff.
Photo courtesy of Film Study Center