Happy holidays from the Bridges Team
The Bridges team has been taking questions about adding streaming video to the collection for some time, so we are pleased to announce we will be piloting a limited selection of video titles. They will be available for your patrons later today or tomorrow. We chose to add “Always Available” titles, which means they may be checked out by multiple patrons at one time and are only available for one year. These are purchased as a package and include titles from PBS, as well as older classics. This will give us a chance to see if and how videos might be used by Bridges patrons. To see what is in the collection, you will be able to browse and filter by format. Because of budget restrictions, we will not be taking patron requests for other titles. We will try to make that clear on the request form.
Advantage libraries (those that purchase their own library collections in addition to the Bridges titles) have been limited to formats available in the entire collection. Now, they’ll be able to add more video to their own collections if they choose.
We will be holding online “town hall” meetings to talk about potential changes to Bridges sometime this spring. We want to hear from you regarding the addition of streaming video, as well as current purchasing restrictions, due to budget. We are starting with this small video collection, as it is likely that if we choose to add streaming video as a larger collection, it will mean an increase in fees. We also want to hear your success stories and any concerns you might have. We will have more information available as we get closer to scheduling those sessions.
This is our early “Holiday present” to you and your patrons!
Thanks!
The Bridges Team