Twenty-one communities across the province now have additional video outlets with a large stock of videos available free of charge. The Provincial Library Service announced today that the video resources of the Department of Education Media Centre are now available to all Islanders through the Provincial Library Catalogue.
A search on Abbycat, the library catalogue, will find over 6,000 titles on topics relating to the latest computer software, health education, school projects, riveting documentaries, animated children's stories and much more.
The collection is primarily composed of videos produced by the National Film Board (NFB) including Oscar and other international award winners. Recent NFB productions include documentaries on the battle of Vimy Ridge, a series of films made by women and a collection of animated native folktales. Many of the NFB videos are produced for children, including an animated version of Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater. Most NFB videos are also available in a French-language edition. The Provincial Library Service has a contract with the NFB which enables these videos to be made available for public viewing at no charge.
Many other videos, in both English and French, were acquired to supplement school programs. Since most of the collection was purchased for use in schools, teachers are able to reserve videos for classrooms on a priority basis. However, the videos are also useful for upgrading and life-long learning. The Provincial Library Service coordinates borrowing of these materials for classroom and other instructional use.
Anyone with a valid library card can borrow up to 10 videos for a one week period. Those with a home computer and internet access can even do their searching and requesting from home. Videos can be borrowed and returned to any library in the system.
"We want the public to have full use of all of our resources," says Provincial Library director Harry Holman. "If, for example, you are interested in Beethoven we have books, we have music on compact disks, and now we have videos - all in the same catalogue - and all accessible in every branch of the library across the province."
Holman stresses the libraries are not in competition with video stores. The libraries carry material not usually found in video rental outlets and the library collection has an educational thrust, although many of the titles also have entertainment value.
The Provincial Library Service is a division of the Department of Education.