Preservation

We have several VHS tapes that our anthropology professors use in the classroom. Our campus will be phasing out VHS as the players break down. We would like to send these to a vendor to create DVDs or digital files. We feel we have done the due diligence searching for a replacement.

This question starts with 17 USC 108(c), which allows for duplication of “obsolete,” formats, but limits the accessibility of digitized copies “to the premises” of the library. 

Our local newspaper of record used to microfilm itself (using a third party vendor) for their own use in their private archives.  I’m not sure what terms they had with the microfilm vendor, but it was relatively inexpensive for the public library to purchase a copy from the microfilming company for daily use.  The newspaper has come under new ownership and longer microfilms itself.

A community library’s role in archiving and creating access to local news is critical, but changing technology, uncertainly of ownership, and costs can make the legal aspects of the process uncertain.  The member’s questions, set out below, are on the forefront of this issue: how do libraries position themselves to preserve and provide access to published local news?