Biz of Acq - How Closing a Media Service Point Led to Opening the DVD Collection and Increased DVD Circulation

In 2012 the Sonoma State University Library found itself in a 215,000 square foot building with multiple service points and a limited number of employees to cover all the service desks. A study was made and it was determined that the media desk could be consolidated and rolled into the circulation desk. All non DVD media (cassettes, record albums, and VHS tapes) would be stored in the library’s automated retrieval system. All DVDs would migrate to open stacks in a central location in the library. Decisions had to be made about what the open stack area would look like, how the items would be secured, when would the “conversion” take place (with the least amount of interruption to the user), how and who would make the conversion, and how would call numbers be changed from accession numbers to Library of Congress call numbers? Another important question – would the change make a difference in usage statistics? The change did make a difference and DVD usage over a two year period soared by 76%.