Film and education; a symposium on the role of the film in the field of education ([1948])

THE UNIVERSITY OR COLLEGE FILM LIBRARY How large are the university and college film libraries? Forty-eight institutions provided information concerning the number of prints in their film libraries. A distribution of these figures reveals an exceedingly large range, from 5 prints to over 7,000. The median point of this distribution is 500 prints. Forty-one per cent of the reporting institutions have less than 500 prints in their film libraries; forty-eight per cent have more than 500 prints. Forty-two per cent of the libraries reported that their collections were 1,000 prints or more. Table II summarizes the data on size of film libraries. TABLE II. NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES REPORTING FILM LIBRARIES OF VARIOUS SIZES Size of Library Number of Institutions Per Cent 5— 99 prints 7 12 100— 499 prints 17 29 500— 999 prints 10 17 1,000—2,999 prints 18 31 3,000 — 7,000 prints .6 11 TOTAL 58 100 The university extension divisions have, of course, the largest libraries, since they are in most cases the oldest centers and since they serve the largest territories. Film libraries in the state teachers colleges are generally small, rarely larger than 500 prints. No direct information was obtained concerning the ratio of film titles to film prints. However, a study of the catalogs of the larger libraries indicates that these agencies are expanding vertically as well as horizontally, adding duplicate prints according to need as well as new film subjects. What audio-visual materials in addition to films are distributed by universities and colleges? Less than forty per cent of the reporting film libraries indicated that they dis (507]