Vinyl Still Circulates

By Prof. Junior Tidal
One of my responsibilities as Multimedia & Web Services Librarian at City Tech is overseeing the numerous media collections that we have. I recently weeded numerous broken VHS cassettes, 3.5-inch floppy discs, incompatible CD-ROMs from the 1990s, audio cassettes, and 8mm and 16mm reel to reel films. Most interesting to me is that we still keep our vinyl collection. What distinguishes this particular format from those that have been removed from the collection is that this format still circulates.

 
From spoken-word to jazz, from country to rock, from foreign language to instruction to operas, the City Tech Library’s vinyl collection spans over 3000 recordings in various genres. When I first arrived at City Tech I was awe struck at not only the collection, but that it still circulates. It was also in very, very, poor shape. The stacks of vinyl in the media collection were not well organized. They suffered from many problems, some of which we are still working on eight years later. Logistical problems include call numbers not in the correct order, damaged items still on the shelves, and a lack of space. Over the course of a few years, several college assistants and I sorted and cleaned the shelves. We re-arranged the LPs in their correct order and discarded unnecessary duplicates and broken records.
Besides the physical problems we encountered, Monica Berger, City Tech Library’s cataloger, found numerous inconsistencies with the catalog records of many media items. Previous librarians and staff had erroneously created minimal records of materials. Currently, we are reviewing these materials to ensure a proper consistency among all LPs. This is important so that students and faculty have a proper access point and can find what they are looking for.
Of the numerous audio formats in the library’s collection, including audio cassettes and CDs, vinyl circulates the most. There have been no requests for audio cassettes for some time, so last year we weeded our collection. CDs have not circulated in over six years, as students turn more towards MP3 formats and streaming media. These materials, like our LPs, can be borrowed for a week. But only the vinyl leaves the library doors.
As an avid record collector, I am very pleased to see this. I’m even more delighted when I see students checking out vinyl and not knowing how to use it. I feel that people have a greater appreciation of music when they can hold the material in their hands, touch the LP jackets and inner sleeves, and have something tangible that they can feel. This can’t be done with a web page, an eBook, or with Spotify (credit jamila). As libraries move towards new electronic models of distribution, something is being lost. At City Tech Library, vinyl has outlived the 8-track, the cassette, and the CD. I strongly believe that it will survive the Internet stream as well.