What is best practice for TV series collection development?

Question

I work in a public library and have just been assigned TV series on DVD as a collection development area. I am looking for a guideline concerning when (not) to replace damaged items. Ideally, for all the shows we buy, we would have at least one copy of each season; however, is it worth replacing older seasons of less popular shows, especially if there are other copies of that season in other libraries in the consortium? If there is a best practice for this, I would love to know.

Answer 1

This is a highly individualized decision that depends on a number of things:

• Real estate: Is shelf space at a premium in your DVD section? Maybe you'd rather use the space for something more popular/newer.
• Budget: Maybe you'd prefer to use your budget for something more popular/newer.
• Requests: How often is the material requested? Look for the break-even point between cost of ILL vs cost of replacement. How many ILL requests equal a replacement?
• The materials: What does the circulation data for the series in question tell you? Quite often you'll find that it is the early shows that get checked out the most as people have gotten hooked on a series on television, but missed the early seasons and have come to the library to "catch up." Alternately, they start watching a series of DVDs from the beginning, and then they lose interest as they go on. Also, some series are more sequential than others: it may feel more necessary to replace a season of Mad Men, where characters and stories develop over time, than a season of Friends. And some series are newer and therefore more topical and worthy of replacement.
• Policy: Do check your collection policy for guidance.

I used to order DVDs for a small public library, and I came to think of that collection as somewhat fluid. I was not building a collection so much as I was keeping it fresh. DVDs came and went, attrition by loss or damage, and generally I found it best to spend money on new things rather than replacing old things as this invigorated circulation and made our collection worth visiting, even though it was small.