--- Forwarded Message from Ursula Williams <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 11:20:29 -0500
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Ursula Williams <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: #5170 Funds for Video purchasing

As luck would have it, the new Dean of the College of Arts and Letters was
the Chairman of the Department of German and Russian Languages and
Literatures first. Prior to his becoming Dean, we experienced similar
frustrations connected with obtaining videos and other materials. Faculty
were unable to buy materials because "it would have to come out of the book
budget (library allocation), and we need that for books." Language faculty
had the feelings Nina described in her post, especially because the
language faculty was primarily adjuncts who got virtually nothing in the
way of services anyway.

Back to the luck part: In my annual report last year I requested the
addition of a budget line for the acquisition of materials, and I got it! I
had a history of buying things when I could out of the supplies budget, and
the departments had a history of saying no, so maybe this was a no-brainer.
Starting this year, the Language Resource Center has a modest budget for
acquiring new videos and materials. So far, the only criterion is that
items that will affect more students have priority over those that will be
used by fewer students. Lynne Crandall at UMich (boo!) has a very nice form
for requests. Questions on it enable her to determine what's a worthwhile
thing to get and what's not. I may, er, "adopt" that eventually.

Since I am the only one who has ever bought this "stuff" I have purchased
such things as cards with pictures of things on them. (Some of the things
are sequenced; one that comes to mind is a series that has a picture of a
potato, a picture of a potato peeled and cut up for French Fries, and a
fryer. Another set has opposites; a rainy day, a sunny day; happy, sad,
etc.) I have bought ABBA's greatest hits in Spanish, little cardboard
clocks, number puzzles, hats, well, you get the idea. Videos, too. And
CD-ROMs.

A substantial video collection was purchased with grant money when we
refurbished the Center several years ago. More recent acquisitions have
been replacement tapes and new releases.

Hope this helps. So far it's working for me!

Ursula Williams
Notre Dame