Fiction_L Archives Cassettes vs. CD's Dates: 12/8/00,2:23 PM  through  12/15/00,1:54 PM  (12 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to December 2000 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Corky Lee" <[removed]@nslsilus.org>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 2:23 PM

I have recently been given the responsibility for selecting our
audiobooks. I am wondering how other libraries are developing
their collections. Is it advisable to put more into books on cd's, do
a 50/50 split, or is the trend still predominately cassettes?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

Corky


Corky Lee
Readers' Services
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il

FROM: "Deb Warner" <[removed]@co.durham.nc.us>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 2:39 PM

We still have the larger proportion of our collection of audiobooks on
cassette. More people still have cassette players rather than CD players,
but some have both. Some poor souls only have CD players in their cars,
alas. We put out a list for borrowers to sign indicating interest in CD
books and gathered at least 200 signatures. When we did add the first 30 or
so titles on CD they were snapped up rarely sit for long on the shelf. We
are currently ordering more. So..go most heavily with the cassettes but
start moving on the CDs, because they are growing in popularity.

FROM: Viccy Kemp <[removed]@ci.carrollton.tx.us>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 2:45 PM

Our collection currently is mainly in cassette format, but we are moving
into CDs heavily. More and more new cars are coming out only with CD
players. We will remain with the cassettes for the time being, but we are
ordering hot new titles in both formats.
HTH
Viccy Kemp
The opinions are my own; the library wouldn't want 'em!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Corky Lee [[removed]@nslsilus.org]
> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 2:21 PM
> To: Fiction_L
> Subject: Cassettes vs. CD's
>
> I have recently been given the responsibility for selecting our
> audiobooks. I am wondering how other libraries are developing
> their collections. Is it advisable to put more into books on cd's, do
> a 50/50 split, or is the trend still predominately cassettes?
>
> Thanks, in advance, for any help.
>
> Corky
>
>
>
>
> Corky Lee
> Readers' Services
> Des Plaines Public Library
> [removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html

FROM: Penny Hill <[removed]@sjvls.lib.ca.us>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 3:31 PM

We are starting to get a few more books on cd, but imagine that we'll remain true to cassette as the majority of our library patrons have cassette players at home & in their vehicles. We are also heavily used for audio books by the people who work at the postal encoding center to keep themselves alert during their 12 hour shifts and error-free in their work; they seem to have just cassette players, judging by what they request and borrow in that format.

Penny Hill
Fresno County Library / Selma Branch


.....................................................................
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FROM: "Sally Edwards" <[removed]@cml.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 3:36 PM

I agree that demand is growing for books on CD. The problem I see with trying to build a collection that is divided 50/50 between the formats is that you may not find enough titles to order. There still are many more titles released on cassette than on CD.
Sally Edwards Columbus Metropolitan Library
[removed]@cml.lib.oh.us
>>> [removed]@nslsilus.org 12/08/00 03:20PM >>>
I have recently been given the responsibility for selecting our
audiobooks. I am wondering how other libraries are developing
their collections. Is it advisable to put more into books on cd's, do
a 50/50 split, or is the trend still predominately cassettes?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

Corky


Corky Lee
Readers' Services
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il

FROM: "Mary Rindfleisch" <[removed]@biblio.org>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 4:53 PM

My books-on-cassette listeners would kill me if I suddenly diverted that
much money away from tapes for books-on-CD, since many of them do not yet
have access to CD players (Ridgefield is a fairly affluent community, but
not everyone has a brand new car with only a CD player in it). I talked our
Friends group into giving a couple of thousand dollars to buy a starter
collection of books-on-CD last spring, to jumpstart this new format, and now
try to order at least a handful of new CDs each month along with the tapes
which come as part of Recorded Books and Books-on-Tape standing order plans.
I would say I am going to come out at the end of the year with about a 70/30
split in terms of my audio budget, with cassettes still getting the lion's
share. And I hope to get more outside funding to augment purchases of CDs.
Unfortunately, the audio allocation for this budget year did not go up more
than a small cost of living increase, so I am going to have to continue to
juggle for some while yet.

Mary Rindfleisch
Adult Services/Readers' Advisory Librarian
Ridgefield Library
472 Main St.
Ridgefield, CT 06877
Phone: 203-438-2282
e-mail: [removed]@biblio.org

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.webrary.org
[[removed]@maillist.webrary.org]On Behalf Of Corky Lee
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 3:21 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Cassettes vs. CD's


I have recently been given the responsibility for selecting our
audiobooks. I am wondering how other libraries are developing
their collections. Is it advisable to put more into books on cd's, do
a 50/50 split, or is the trend still predominately cassettes?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

Corky


Corky Lee
Readers' Services
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 5:26 PM

At 05:48 PM 12/8/00 -0500, you wrote:
>My books-on-cassette listeners would kill me if I suddenly diverted that
>much money away from tapes for books-on-CD, since many of them do not yet
>have access to CD players (Ridgefield is a fairly affluent community, but
>not everyone has a brand new car with only a CD player in it). <snip>

As a public library user, rather than a public librarian, that was my
first thought on the matter...

Older cars are more likely to be owned by lower-income people and to
have cassette players; new (expensive) cars are more likely to be owned
by higher-income people (d'uh!) and have CD players. One could argue
that the former group "need" more access to public library services,
while the latter group are more likely to complain if they feel they
are being slighted (and are perhaps more likely to vote on bond issues
and such). Sounds like a balancing act to me...

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

(who drives a 1985 AMC car without a reliable working audio-anything but
takes a cheap portable cassette player with him when he does so)

FROM: J Heuer <[removed]@itol.com>
REC'D: 12/8/00, 9:56 PM

We have about 120 titles on CD in our collection (fiction and nonfiction). I
started adding them slowly mainly because there wasn't alot being produced.
And I have to purchase them out of my cassette budget. But they were never
on the shelf.
But the reason the collection has grown by leaps and bounds lately is 1) we
built a new branch and the director wants everything in this branch to be
new and improved so separate budgets were created from money raised. I had
about $5000 for just CD's. Then a month ago we got a donation of $1500 for
CD's only. The nice thing is this branch is part of our county system and of
course can be borrowed by anyone using our main library and it's 8 branches.

and 2)
We also have a book rental collection which has cassettes as well. We
started a standing order with Recorded Books for their CD's and those go
into rental. Of course once they have been in rental for about 6 months they
are put into the regular collection thus enlarging the cd holdings that way.
I am sure we will have 200 cd's in the main collection by the end of the
year and I only see 10 at any one time on the shelf.

Jeanne
--
Jeanne Heuer
Brown County Library
Green Bay, WI
[removed]@itol.com

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones
to keep." -anonymous
> From: "Deb Warner" <[removed]@co.durham.nc.us>
> Organization: Durham County Library
> Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
> Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 16:01:57 -0500
> To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
> Subject: cassettes vs CDs
>
> We still have the larger proportion of our collection of audiobooks on
> cassette. More people still have cassette players rather than CD players,
> but some have both. Some poor souls only have CD players in their cars,
> alas. We put out a list for borrowers to sign indicating interest in CD
> books and gathered at least 200 signatures. When we did add the first 30 or
> so titles on CD they were snapped up rarely sit for long on the shelf. We
> are currently ordering more. So..go most heavily with the cassettes but
> start moving on the CDs, because they are growing in popularity.
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: "Renee Zurn" <[removed]@duluth.lib.mn.us>
REC'D: 12/9/00, 3:15 PM

I am glad to see other librarians have the same questions and problems I do!! It is great to have a listserve to talk to others.

The Duluth Public Library just received a gift of $1000.00 from our Friends to purchase audio books on cd. We have had patrons asking for them since the summer but had to get a handle on the number of requests before I could add a new format.

My audio book budget has not changed and there is a great demand for books on cassette. I am not sure how I will balance the demand. Right now, most books on cd are fiction bestsellers while my audio book collection is maybe 1/4 nonfiction and 3/4 fiction. If they go like reported on this listserve I will be having trouble satisfying requests for both types of audio books.

Renee Zurn
Duluth Public Library
520 W. Superior St.
Duluth MN 55802

FROM: Jeanne Etling <[removed]@ccs.nsls.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 12/9/00, 5:05 PM

Just a caveat. Remind your staff when a patron requests an audiobook that
they must learn to ask if it is CD or cassette, we should not assume that
cassettes are requested.

Perhaps patrons who are used to looking for tapes will realize that you
now have a collection on CD.

Jeanne Etling
Dundee (IL) Township Public Library District

FROM: "Corky Lee" <[removed]@nslsilus.org>
REC'D: 12/15/00, 1:46 PM

Don OK'ed my forwarding this and the following message so that
we could all gain from his knowledge!


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 15:26:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Don Turner <[removed]@yahoo.com>
To: [removed]@desplaines.lib.il.us

Hi Corky, My name is Don Turner, your e-mail was
forwarded to me by our Head of Circulation. I am the
person responsible for purchasing audios and other
media items for our branch. The rule of thumb I have
been using for selection is 70% cassette, 30% CD
titles for audio books, but just the opposite for
music. We have found that CD media is more costly as
well as possibly more fragile in audio book formats.
The CD holds at best, 74 minutes of program, whereas
cassettes hold 90 minutes or a bit more. You can see
that a 15 hour program will require more CDs than
cassettes to accomodate that much time. As you look
through the catalogs of vendors, you will see the CDs
are higher in cost than cassette for the same titles.
Another issue has been that it seems that CDs are
coming back damaged more that cassettes. Rental
companies like Landmark, and Taped Editions are seeing
the same thing. I wouldn't order CD audio books at all
if it weren't for patron request, and the fact that it
appears that the cassette may be aproaching the end of
it's service life as a media format. I buy music on
CD because of sound quality issues. The CD is simply
better for music. I order some music on cassette,
because some older recordings don't have the quality
to take advantage of CD. Also some older patrons don't
have the newer machines. Lastly, if a music CD is
damaged, it isn't as frustrating as having one, of a
20 CD audio book set, come back damaged and the entire
set goes on sick leave until a replacement can be
obtained. I hope this is helpful to you. Don

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/

------- End of forwarded message -------
Corky Lee
Readers' Services
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il

FROM: "Corky Lee" <[removed]@nslsilus.org>
REC'D: 12/15/00, 1:54 PM

This is part 2!!


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 08:57:33 -0800 (PST)
From: Don Turner <[removed]@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Audiobooks
To: Corky Lee <[removed]@nslsilus.org>

Hi Corky, If you feel my comments are useful, feel
free to pass them on. Unless it is used as part of a
comedy routine, in that case I would want partial
billing;-).
As for replacements, A CD is about $10.00, and
cassettes are about $5.00, from the vendors I have
dealt with. If you find better terms please let me
know.
The biggest problem with CDs, is that people think
that a CD is more sturdy than it actually is. They can
take abuse that other media couldn't survive, but they
can be damaged. We have gotten CDs back with sctatches
that couldn't be buffed of polished out. We have
gotten CDs returned that were cracked or broken in
half! Do you remember the old vinyl LP records that
were left in the car on a hot day? They looked like
black potato chips. We haven't gotten any over-heated
CDs yet, but I think it is just a matter of time.
We are just now getting into DVD movies. Because DVDs
are usually one disc instead of multi-disc sets, we
aren't anticipating the same types of damage that we
see in media that is used on-the-go. Don

--- Corky Lee <[removed]@nslsilus.org> wrote:
> Don, can I ask you a few more questions?
>
> 1.) Would it be alright to forward your
> response to fiction-l as others
> might be interested as well;
> 2.) How expensive are the cd's to replace?
> 3.) What kind of damage is done to the cd's?
> Scratches...?
>
> Thanks for all your help.
> Corky Lee
> Readers' Services
> Des Plaines Public Library
> [removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/

------- End of forwarded message -------
Corky Lee
Readers' Services
Des Plaines Public Library
[removed]@desplaines.lib.us.il

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