Re: ?AV MARC records?Follett AV ALLIANCE?

[PAUL VENANCIO <PAULVO@IDS.NET>]

Joan Arrowsmith writes: A couple of months ago we heard about the new AV
MARC record database called Alliance AV ACCESS, from Follett on LM_NET. Is
anyone out there using it yet? If so, what do you think?
--
I have had my copy of Follett's AV Access, part of the Alliance Plus CD
series, for about a month and it would take more than a crowbar to pry it
away from me! For retrospective conversion of nonprint items, it is just
terrific. We kept careful records of our hit rate for the first week or so
that we had the CD. The hit rate for videos was better than 70%. For audio
cassettes--particularly those of authors reading their own works--the hit
rate was closer to 50%. Only with our older filmstrip kits
(filmstrip/cassettes) was the hit rate a bit disappointing at about 35%.
Would I recommend AV Access to others? You bet! I haven't found a faster,
easier way to convert nonprint records to MARC. Sure beats everything else
I've tried--including generating original cataloging for nonprint. Cheers,
Paul Venancio, Director of Media Services, Middletown RI Public Schools
(paulvo@ids.net)