Videos and DVDs

Greetings! Usually I talk about books and other reading material, but this time I thought I’d talk about other media. Recently I bought a number of DVDs for school use to supplement the curriculum. I sent an email to all the teachers and asked them to let me know what subject areas they would like to have DVDs for use in their classrooms. I wrote down the responses I got and made a list. Then I went looking for these subjects. First I went to Library Video Company. www.LibraryVideo.com I have a print catalog and I started paging through. When I saw something that fit a need at our school, I highlighted the item and put a post it flag on that page then I marked it off my list. Many of the subjects have multiple videos and DVDs for it, so I had to choose the ones that would be best for our school and the grade level that needed the DVD. If you search online, you can watch short clips of many of the DVDs in order to help you get a better idea of the appropriateness of the movie. You can also sort the lists online and filter them to get your choices down to a more manageable size. If you need a particular subject and cannot find something at Library Video, check Amazon.com. I was looking for a DVD for study skills for junior high next year and could not find what I wanted. I did a search on Amazon.com and found just what I was looking for. At our school, we have videos and a few DVDs for students to check out. This is the first year we have done this and it is working out well. We also have videos and DVDs for teacher use only. The ones that support our curriculum do not get checked out by students, only teachers. The two sections are separate from each other and marked differently, too. I hope you consider purchasing a variety of other media for your library. Think about videos, audio books, maybe even some CDs for check-out. Have a great week. Audrey