Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

Moy, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 27 Five-Way, Five-Day Conference on Adult Education REPORTED BY WILLIAM F. KRUSE . Detroit was host, April 22-26, to a national conference on adult education, arranged jointly by five outstanding national organizations concerned with this field. These included the American Association for Adult Education, the American Library Association, the Educational Film Library Association, the National Education Association, and the National University Extension Association. It drew a large attendance of topflight people from all over the country, and worked with enthusiasm through a long and varied program of talks, panel discussions, film demonstrations that kept things humming from 9:00 a. m. until after ten each night. Education More Than Kindergarten to Campus Well-nigh universal emphasis was placed on the use of visual aids in “informal” education, and especially on the use of motion pictures as a mass medium of education. Too many of us have come to realize the value of films in classroom teaching — but have stopped there. This conference demonstrated that this is only one of many fields for the use of films, and probably by no means the largest, or the most immediately vital. So extensive is the recognition of the great immediate future of these extra-curricular uses of the film that a certain “competition” seemed to develop between libraries, extension divisions, film centers and other groups as to which was best qualified to administer the distribution and the utilization of films. L. C. Larson, in reporting on the functions of an audio-visual center, said : “Educational film centers are immeasurably aided and reinforced in their capacity for effective service by the existence in their area of a wellmanaged commercial film library, such as we have in Indianapolis. No educator hesitates to recognize his local newspaper editor or radio station manager as having a definite place in the educational picture. Commercial film libraries occupy a similar position in our communities, and, given the same level of responsible direction, deserve the same level of recognition by educators.” Larson set his sights higher than some of his colleagues would endorse, but the scope of activities that he foresees should certainly encourage those who make a business of supplying this market. Each center, he holds, should have at least 5,000 prints of 3,000 titles, representing a $200,000 investment with a ten-year life, thus averaging $20,000 a year for renewals. Another $10,000 a year should be allowed for equipment, filmstrips, slides, etc., and $25,000 a year for staff and administration— in all about a $60,000-ayear budget, with perhaps half to two-thirds coming back in fees, the rest covered by subsidy. In answer to objections that this represented a bigger allotment of school funds than was spent for comparable items, Larson stated that some things were so vital that they had to be measured in terms of their own values. For example, adequate teaching of medicine demanded the maintenance of clinics, hospitals, and research facilities on or near the campus, only a part of the heavy costs of which was recovered in fees. Audio-visual services were so great, in every subject-matter area they served, that their costs should be measured by special standards. Ernest Tiemann told of the local library that serves fifty local groups in an “expanded campus service,” and maintained that all income from distribution should be spent for more film, the administration costs to be covered from regular school funds. Library of Congress Puts Films on Level with Printed Word Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress, told of the position that the Library of Congress has recently taken with respect to the accession, cataloging, and limited distribution of motionpicture films, on exactly the same basis henceforth as governs books and other graphics. Temporary storage space, in cinder block vaults, accommodates eighty million feet of film, but this is being vastly expanded by accessions from various warborn sources. It will be some months before actual services can be extended, but it is the intention to catalog adequately, l)rovide access to reference copies, possibly loan out some ma