Harry Potter Returns! Is Your Collection Ready?

To quote TIME.com, “we've been through a lot, we Potterites.” J.K. Rowling’s first book in the legendary septology released thirteen years ago, and since then, the world has experienced Potter-mania with nine years of cinematic glory, stunning film scores and soundtracks, encyclopaedias and wikis, slews of fan clubs, thousands of blogs and websites (including the hilarious AverageWizard.com), and video games.

Just this past year, Universal Studios in Orlando fulfilled the dreams of Potterites everywhere and turned the world beyond Muggles into a reality. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened on June 18, 2010 and features rides, restaurants, merchandisers, and live shows. The park’s flagship attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, whisks riders “through scenes and environments in and around Hogwarts Castle from the various books and films of the Harry Potter series.”¹

The series’ iconic sport Quidditch has also become a reality. According to TheStarPress.com, Quidditch has taken off across college campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada. While athletes can’t fly like they do in the books and films, they still “must ride their brooms during the game, so to speak, for their plays to be counted.” Quidditch has started to extend beyond intramural college sports, taking off worldwide. There’s even an International Quidditch Association who just hosted their fourth Quidditch World Cup.

In addition to real-life Quidditch matches, Wizard Rock, a rock music genre characterized by bands’ humorous performances and songs about the Harry Potter universe, blossomed out of the series’ fandom. According to a TIME.com article about the original Wizard Rock band, Harry and the Potters, “Wizard rockers dress like Hogwarts students. They play at conventions and clubs and wizard-rock festivals.” According to Wizrocklopedia.com, as of 2010, there are over 750 Wizard Rock bands worldwide.

And while J.K. Rowling has promised Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe that there will be no more Potter films even if there are more books², there’s no doubt that the iconic franchise has ingrained itself in popular culture as well as literary and cinematic history. The series experienced a historical 10-year-run on The New York Times bestsellers list.³ In fact, the books initially clogged the fiction list for so long that the New York Times ended up creating a separate list for children’s fiction.⁴

According to Box Office Mojo, when not adjusted for inflation, Harry Potter is the highest grossing film series of all time, raking in over $5.4 billion worldwide, and the franchise’s first six films are among the 30 highest earning movies worldwide. With each film and book, the Potter mania has intensified, igniting the development of supplemental materials, like interactive DVD games (The Harry Potter DVD Game), tribute albums (Harry Potter Piano Tribute), biographical and explorative DVD programs (Discovering the Real World of Harry Potter), and guides and analyses on audiobook (A Parent's Guide to Harry Potter).

With the first part of the final film—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—hitting theatres today, we want to make sure your library is prepared for the surge in Potter mania. To rev up your library’s selection of Harry Potter films, audiobooks, scores, and soundtracks, visit CVSMidwestTapes.com and select the Harry Potter Collection panel to shop all our Harry Potter franchise titles.

What is your library doing to prepare for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I? What’s your take on Potter mania?

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Forbidden_Journey
² http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/17/harry-potter-jk-rowling-radcliffe
³ http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/ten-years-later-harry-potter-vanishes-from-the-best-seller-list/
⁴ http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2001/11/111201t_top10.jhtml

Free Workflow Solutions Webinar

Is your staff juggling multiple responsibilities? Are you looking to get your audiovisual material on the shelves more rapidly?

Join Inside Sales Representative Elaine Schlagheck on November 17th at 2:00 p.m. EST and learn how CVS Midwest Tape can help streamline these processes. During this 60-minute session, Elaine will introduce CVS Midwest Tape’s Workflow Solutions services, consisting of Processing, Cataloguing, and Opening Day Collections, and detail how the Workflow Solutions team can help and guide your staff towards the most cost-effective and efficient way to meet growing patron demand.

Click here to register for this free webinar.

What webinars have you found most beneficial? What topic would you like CVS Midwest Tape to cover next?

Find Pertinent Information under CVS Midwest Tape’s Help Tab

CVS Midwest Tape has organized a multitude of useful documents, whitepapers, guides, and online webinars under the Help tab in the toolbar on the CVS Midwest Tape website.

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Here you will find information about CVS Midwest Tape and our services; guides and webinars on effectively navigating our website and searching our database; and informative documents on how Midwest Tape can optimize the functions of your Integrated Library System.

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Are you unsure of what a symbol or term on our website means? Reference our Abbreviations and Terminology guide in the Information section.

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Have you ever wanted to attribute a face to the voice of your CVS Midwest Tape representative? Check out the Contacts page, also in the Information section.

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Do you want to cut down the time it takes you to search for titles? Our Smartbrowse Guide and SmartBrowse Tutorial will teach you the ins-and-outs of performing an effective search on our website.

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 Did you miss one of our webinars? View a list of archived webinars on topics like acquisition processes, customized website features, and workflow solutions under the Online Webinars section.

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Are there any additional guides or tutorials you would find helpful? Share your ideas here as comments.

Ring in Your Fiscal Year-End with CVS Midwest Tape’s Help

Winter is quickly approaching, and while that usually means festive parties and holiday cheer, for many libraries it also means the end of your fiscal year.

CVS Midwest Tape understands your needs, and it is our goal to make the year-end process as manageable as possible.

We would like to offer you assistance in making your year-end experience successful and stress-free. Here's how we can help:

• We can provide product in hand and invoicing by a specified date.
• We can offer tools and information to assist you in tracking and reconciling your budgets.
• Our collection development team can aid you in fulfilling remaining budgets.

Let’s enjoy this holiday season together. Let CVS Midwest Tape help you wrap up your year-end.

Call ahead and speak to one of our customer service representatives. It is important to give your representative time to handle your inquiries and requests.  Contact us today at 866.698.2231.

CVS Midwest Tape’s Quick Links: The All-Around Fastest Way to Shop

So you’ve gone through our monthly Buyer’s Guides and circled all the titles that pique your interest? Now, you get on cvsmidwesttapes.ca, eager to order those circled titles plus some hot new releases. But how do you so quickly and easily? Check out Quick Links, one of our website’s most popular navigation tools.

• Open the CVS Midwest Tape homepage. Quick Links are located in the upper right-hand corner.

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• Links are organized by format (Audiobook, Playaway, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray) and grouped by collection:

Hot New Releases: Click a format to view the latest, most buzzworthy titles added to our website in the Browse function.

Monthly Calendar: Select your format of choice to view each month’s new releases in our Calendar.

Children’s Titles: Choose a format to view top selling titles specific to this collection in SmartBrowse.

Cat2Cart: Click a format to view every title featured in this month’s Buyer’s Guides in SmartBrowse.

International Titles: Choose a format to view languages specific to this collection; drill down further by selecting a language; and then view those titles in SmartBrowse.

• Simply click “Home” or the CVS Midwest Tape logo to return to our site’s homepage and the Quick Links feature.

Does your library use Quick Links? How does it aid the efficiency and ease of your shopping experience?

Netflix Launches in Canada

Netflix, the world’s largest online video streaming subscription service, made its Canadian debut on September 22. Due to content and bandwidth limitations, this service stands to be supplemental rather than threatening to DVD and Blu-ray library collections.

Availability of Content
While libraries are able to circulate DVDs and Blu-rays on their actual street dates, new releases from several major studios debut on Netflix two to three months after they physically appear on video store shelves. Additionally, Netflix’s Canadian database offers a limited selection— just over 7,000 English-spoken titles. The majority of these titles are television shows, documentaries, older movies, and limited release art films.

The lack of content so far can be attributed to strict and complex licencing requirements. Netflix doesn’t own the movies they stream; rather, they licence them from studios, authors, musicians, writers, and directors. And even though Netflix may have acquired more substantial content rights in the United States, these rights do not transfer to Canada. Online media distributors, including Netflix, must acquire Canadian licencing from broadcast rights holders.¹

Even though Netflix provides streaming video on-demand, it may be a challenge for patrons to find videos they want to see. Therefore, libraries can expect their patrons to continue to rely on their local branch’s DVD and Blu-ray circulations for new releases and titles that have yet to be licensed by Netflix.

Bandwidth Limitations
In addition to content issues, Canadian Netflix subscribers also face bandwidth limitations. Internet providers in Canada enforce bandwidth caps that restrict the amount of data a user can transfer throughout the month. For example, high-speed internet provider Rogers offers plans that range from 2 gigabytes a month to 175 gigabytes.² However, an average HD movie consumes 2 gigabytes of bandwidth per hour while one hour of normal video uses 1 gigabyte per hour.³ Therefore, a Netflix subscriber could easily surpass his or her monthly allotment of bandwidth by watching just a couple of movies a week, depending on their plan.

Bandwidth overages can result in charges anywhere from $.50 to $5.00 for each additional gigabyte used.² Consequently, for some users Netflix may end up costing significantly more than the initial $7.99 a month. Because of this, many library patrons will continue to use the free services provided by libraries rather than streaming services, especially in today’s uncertain economy.

In conclusion, while Netflix offers an additional entertainment option for Canadian audiences, there are significant drawbacks to the new service, specifically limited content and restricted bandwidth—which can greatly affect total cost for the consumer. Thus, libraries and the quality DVD collections they provide will continue to serve as a valuable resource for their communities.

What do you think of Netflix’s presence in Canada? Have your patrons provided any feedback? Do you foresee Netflix having any affect on circulation or patron base? Share your thoughts here as comments.

¹ http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/technology/lawbytes/article/871980--geist-why-are-u-s-net-services-slow-to-migrate-north?bn=1

² http://www.hispeed.rogers.com/bband/content/keepingpace/faq.html

³http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/services+slow+make+their+north/3623416/story.html#ixzz11lxNbZS9

Success Stories Series: Simplifying Workflows with 9xx

At CVS Midwest Tape, we take pride in our ability to help libraries solve problems. As a customer-focused company, we do our best to work with libraries to develop solutions that work for their specific situations. In an effort to share workable solutions as well as better illustrate our resources, we will be sharing some of our success stories here on News & Views.

In this entry, IT tester and coordinator Walt Waltzer shares his experiences with 9xx ordering:

One of the more important aspects of the library business is collection development. When collection development becomes time consuming and complicated, the library and its patrons suffer the burden. One way we try to help lighten library workloads is setting up 9xx ordering.

9xx ordering is a method in which a customer uses capabilities of their ILS to electronically assist with the ordering process. 9xx refers to a MARC record tag (in the 900s) that is populated with unique customer information to allow the electronic submission or import of orders.  Adding 9xx can greatly improve workflows by reducing the time spent developing collections and simplifying the steps to do so.

9xx in Action

One of our customers was overwhelmed by the complexity of their collection development workflow. The below slide shows their initial workflow and includes at least 15 distinct steps to the process including printing copies and handwriting orders, two very time and resource consuming steps.

Initial workflow; click view larger size.

Through collaboration with CVS Midwest Tape, this library decided to use 9xx to improve the accuracy of their orders and greatly reduce the amount of time needed to develop collections. By doing so, this customer was able to streamline the process down to 6 steps, as shown below. This also brought better order tracking and monitoring which allows for better communication with patron material requests.

After 9xx; click to view larger size

Interested in setting up 9xx ordering with CVS Midwest Tape? Contact Customer Service at 866.698.2231 to be connected with a 9xx specialist.

This has been the first instalment in our Success Stories series. Do you have a success story you’d like to share? Email newsandviews@midwesttapes.com to share your experience. You can also post your experiences with 9xx or your feedback on this series here as comments.