VHS to DVD
Project Description
- The JVC Anthology of World Music and Dance with 62 checkouts
- A Biography of America with 42 checkouts
- Wonders of the African World with 26 checkouts
- The Major Theories of Family Therapy with 22 checkouts
Unfortunately, VHS is fast becoming an obsolete media. The Office of Instructional Resources offers only limited support for VHS and has discontinued installation of VHS players in classrooms. The OIR policy on VHS is attached. Few students own a VHS player these days. Moreover, the tapes themselves suffer degradation with age and use. Copyright laws prevent the library from simply copying the VHS to DVD or other modern media. The UCF Libraries strongly believes that access to this content will be needed in the future, and that they must act to keep this content available to faculty and students.
With over 10,000 VHS titles in the collection, the cost to replace the VHS with DVDs is prohibitive. Furthermore, many of the titles are not available on DVD. The Libraries identified 397 VHS titles that showed a strong record of use over the last 5 years and are currently available on DVD. A full list of the titles to be replaced is attached. The selected titles support nearly all UCF departments with many covering language & literature, history & law, science & medicine, and technology.
The total cost to replace the VHS with DVD for the 397 selected titles is $63,522.58, at an average cost of $160.00 per title. The price per DVD is reasonable for academic titles and well in line with typical educational video prices, which often cost $250 or more per title. The prices include the right to show the videos in class, and many of the titles are multi-disc sets, such as:
- A Biography of America, which encompasses a 26 hour program on 7 DVDs
- JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance, a collection of 30 DVDs
- APA Psychotherapy Videotape Series, a collection of 20 DVDs
This is a one-time expenditure and no additional costs will be incurred during the implementation of this project.
Student Access to Project Resources
Total number of students served by the project:
State the number of students that will directly benefit from the proposed project per academic year (explain how you arrived at that number). Also indicate whether student access will be: a) full-time (7×24) or b) part-time (number of hours per week). If the project is focused on faculty, state the number of faculty members that will benefit from the proposed project.
One hundred percent of UCF students and faculty will have access to, and could benefit from, the conversion of these 397 VHS titles to DVD format. The DVDs could be viewed by a single student, a group of students, or an entire class. Because UCF will own the content, the DVDs will support instructional and research needs of all current students and faculty, as well as the future UCF community. The DVDs can be viewed by one student at a time, for 397 individual users at a time, or by entire classes, for over 2,900 simultaneous users (based on 30 students per course).
Table 1 shows the subject categories of the VHS and the number of titles for each category. Each subject category will benefit more than one college or program. For instance, the subject category Psychology, Philosophy & Religion will benefit College of Arts & Humanities, and also benefits the College of Sciences.
Table 1
| Subject Category | Number of VHS Titles within subject |
|---|---|
| Psychology, Philosophy & Religion | 17 |
| History & Law | 72 |
| Geography & Anthropology | 10 |
| Social Science | 36 |
| Education | 14 |
| Music & Art | 18 |
| Language & Literature | 157 |
| Science & Medicine | 47 |
| Technology | 26 |
| Total | 397 |
Table Two illustrates which subject categories will most complement specific colleges.
Table 2
| Colleges | Subject Categories | Titles | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| College of Arts & Humanities |
|
324 | 5,002 |
| College of Business Administration |
|
151 | 8,461 |
| College of Education |
|
340 | 5,490 |
| College of Engineering & Computer Science |
|
134 | 7,071 |
| College of Health & Public Affairs |
|
343 | 8,496 |
| Rosen School of Hospitality Management |
|
175 | 2,816 |
| College of Sciences |
|
222 | 11,287 |
The DVDs will be available for check-out, allowing students to view the videos at their convenience. Interlibrary loan staff will deliver the DVDs to students enrolled in online-only and regional campus programs. The Libraries currently provides devices for viewing DVDs including:
- Portable DVD players for check-out,
- Computers stations in the library,
- Laptops for check-out.
Benefit to Student Learning
The videos for this proposal were selected because of their proven record of use. They are the most heavily used educational video tapes in the Libraries’ collection. Representative titles:
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The DVDs will become part of the UCF Libraries permanent collection and will be included in the online catalog. Students and faculty will be able to check the DVDs out for viewing at home or any place their research takes them. The Libraries will support distance and regional campuses patrons by sending the DVDs to Joint-use libraries, or delivering the DVDs via mail.
The UCF Libraries will promote awareness of the DVDs by outreach to faculty and through library instruction for students. The library will collaborate with faculty groups, such as the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, to publicize the DVDs, especially for in-class use and media reserves. Promotional materials will be distributed in newsletters, library blogs, exhibits, and events such as the faculty development conferences.
Project Success Metrics and Assessment Plan
The Libraries will measure the success of the DVD purchase through circulation statistics. The Aleph system will provide usage reports that track which titles were borrowed or put on reserve. Given the past popularity of these titles on VHS, the new format, which is more compatible and accessible, should result in increased circulation. Table 4 shows the average annual loans for the 397 titles being replaced and projected success metrics for the next three years.
| Year | VHS Check-out | Percent Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 352 | NA |
| 2013 | 387 | 10% |
| 2014 | 445 | 15% |
| 2015 | 534 | 20% |
Project Sustainability
The UCF Libraries is committed to maintaining DVDs as a media format for the foreseeable future. The DVDs will be placed in the Media Center on the 3rd floor. The Libraries will catalog the DVDs, and support access, including by providing DVD players for check out or in-library viewing. The requested funds will cover the entire cost of replacing 397 VHS tapes with DVD equivalents. Cost for processing, maintaining, housing, and managing the DVDs will be covered by the Libraries operating budget.
Technology Fee Proposal Budget Narrative
The purchase of the 397 DVDs will not require facility improvement or space modification. The DVDs will be stored in the Media Center in the library. Completion of this project will result in overall space savings for the library and may permit the library to repurpose the space for other uses. The 397 DVD titles will be purchased for $63,522.58. The attached spreadsheet provides the title by title cost. The average cost of $160 per title is acceptable given that many of educational DVD titles purchased by the library cost around $250.00.
Space Administration
No space is needed for the project.