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Dear Kristine,
I made my remarks in the context of an assumption that all college
libraries were equipped to support research on Duras. I do not wish my
comment to be construed as a criticism of my teaching institution's
library or its librarian.
You state that you spend $15,000 per year on books and journals relating
to film studies. Our librarian must accomodate the needs of 80 faculty
teaching all fields of art, video, film and the histories of these media
on a buying budget that is less than a third of yours. She does as well
as she can. Art books are terribly expensive. Journal subscriptions are
terribly expensive for institutions. We do have additional funds for
purchasing slides, videos, laserdiscs.
I can assure you that a protest on the part of the faculty would not be
viewed favorably. Instead, costs of books, videos, etc needed per course
are attributed to the course, and if the course requires too many
expenditures, it is not approved. This cost analysis basis as part of the
consideration for curriculum is increasingly popular in the new
business orientation to the management of educational institutions. If it
has not yet struck your institution, just be grateful.
As for *money out there*. If there are grants for such purchases for
little schools such as mine that are tuition-driven, I'd be grateful to
hear of them.
Sincerely,
Susan Denker
On Fri, 28 Apr 1995, Kristine Brancolini, 812/855-3710 wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Re Susan Denker's comments on film books: As a film studies librarian, I
> find Susan's comments shocking. I don't know where she teaches, but any
> academic library that only buys five film books a year ought to close its
> doors! I worked in a dinky public library that bought more than that!
> Susan and her faculty ought to go directly to the dean or director of the
> library and start screaming. No matter how small the materials budget, you
> cannot support an acedemic program with five books per year! IU is not
> UCLA, USC or NYU when it comes to film studies but my budget is approximately
> $15,000 per year for books and journals. I have another budget to buy video.
> There's nothing academic library deans and directors respond to more quickly
> than rampaging faculty! So, be vocal! There's money out there...
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