Filmstrip Kit - Cumulative - part 1

[lori joffe <lkjof@ICDC.COM>]

Hi, Everybody.

Here are the results of my question of what to do with the old
filmstrips.  Thanks for all who answered.  I thought I would send this
now (Sunday) while I have the time.

Lori K. Joffe
Librarian
Bensalem High School
Bensalem, PA

lkjof@icdc.com
215-750-2800

I was in the same position last year and this is what I did. I put out
all
the old stuff for the teachers to look at and told them to take what
they
wanted and anything left over I would toss. You'd be surprised at what
some
teachers are attached too!  heheheh  Then after 2 days I did what I said
and
tossed all the rest. I still have some kits (about 25 from over 300)
that I
was asked to keep for depts, but they have not really been used much
since
that time. So this year I am going to put all the rest out and let them
take
again what they really want and toss the rest. It was a bit hard and of
course all those thoughts about donating the stuff to a needy school
kept
going through my head. Then I asked myself, would *I* want to use old
scratchy tapes and 'pink' filmstrips. NO..so out it went.  Hope this
helps.


My principal is a former art teacher.  When I
mentioned to her I had filmstrips I was going to throw
out, she suggested giving them to the art teacher.  "I
can think of two ways she could use them."  This got
me to thinking --- I'm on a flexible schedule except
for one class (40 min.) a day.  I could use those
filmstrips when we read "Where the Wild Things Are"
and make Wild Things.  The filmstrips would make great
wild hair.

Last December I put a huge sign on the front of the
shelf holding the filmstrips and NSG kits  "If you use
any of these, please let me know".  You guessed it.
NOBODY even noticed the sign.  When I suggested to my
curriculum person, when school started this year, that
we should get rid of this stuff, she had a minor
coronary.

My idea is to put put all of this on a table in the
library and say HELP YOURSELF!!!!  What do you wanna
bet most of it will still be there at the end of the
day.

I am a member of the American Assoc. of University
Women and we have a used book sale every year.  We
take this stuff and end up "PAYING MONEY" to have
someone haul it all away after the sale.

I say, toss it!!!!!!!!  If someone is actually using
any of it (probably, shame on them!!!), offer to get
updated info in a more modern format.

I actually had over 700 of the things & only 2 projectors in the whole
school.  Soooo...I held a "flee" market, hoping they would flee from my
library and into any classrooms that wanted them.  I put out tables in
the hallway (this was on an inservice day, so no kids in the bldg.) &
informed them if they didn't take what they wanted that day, oops--
trashed it became!  Do you know, only 1 filmstrip was taken?!?!  The
teachers were in my corner, thinking this was old & outdated, and we'd
be doing an inservice to our students by keeping them.
Besides, my undergrad. ed. media class didn't show me how to load the
dumb things! So, into the trash they went & I am now enjoying the space
for videos & books on tape.  (I gave the teacher who took the filmstrip
one of the projectors & pitched the other one!)


Toss or not toss is based purely on curricular usage.  If you have a FS
on
butterflies and science did not use it but the art teacher did, you
would
keep it for the art curriculum.  Who uses what?  Then what is the
curricular potential and do you want to try to "sell" any of these for
use
in a particular unit?  If none of this, then toss. In the dark ages an
occasional FS frame was slide mounted, but then slides were big in our
curriculum.  We also broke up kits using hang-up bags as we did not like

to circulate the entire kit when all the teacher wanted was just one
segment of it.  This made for ease of handling and multiple uses
simultaneously.  Also cut down on loss.

Don't throw away the cassettes for kits based on children's literature,
especially if you have the book in your library.  Many of my kits were
of children's picture books.  I found by checking each one that most of
them were exact, word by word readings of the book.  I saved those
cassettes, and the teachers love them for listening centers!  Everything

else got tossed in the trash the year I discovered I was the only one
left who even had a filmstrip projector, and mine was broken again after

going to the shop a couple of times!  That was also the year my
filmstrip projector was sent to the warehouse auction, never to be
replaced.

Lori, please post a hit or send me any suggestions you might get.  I too
am
planning on "weeding" through the old kits.  When we automated in 1994
we did
the "toss" thing to all single filmstrips.  I just put them out on the
table(s) and told teachers to get what they wanted...including the
cabinets.
We probably had nearly 1000 filmstrips alone.  Not too long before that
we
had also had to moved things for some renovation and got rid of a lot of

things that had never been checked out or not in over 15-20+ years!

I was planning on going through our kits that have filmstrips/cassettes
and
weeding this year...after calling up the record on the automated system
and
seeing when the last time it had been checked out, etc.  However, our
upgraded system had a glitch and deleted all of our patrons so I'm not
sure
if it will give me any history on the items or not...but still plan on
trying.  I need the space...so do hope to do it this year.

The school is was in 2 yrs. ago - the principal was behind me
"divesting"
the library of filmstrips.  So, I offered the teachers a chance to take
what they wanted, before they were tossed...

Global tosses appeal to me, too, but I got cold feet
at the last minute.  I took all of the filmstrips I was
planning to toss and put them on 2 bookcarts in the
Teachers' Room.  Then I typed a list of them all and
put that in every teacher's mailbox, offering them for
classrooms or for any "underprivileged" school or
group they might know.

    Guess what?  One teacher took one filmstrip
"for nostalgia" and the rest got tossed.  Next time,
I'll just dump them all.

I went with two questions-- Do we still have the necessary equipment to
make
use of these kits? and Is there anyone who will use them?  I had some
sets
in my collection that required a reel-to-reel recorder.  I also had only
one
filmstrip projector that still worked.  I sent it along with an ancient
single-tape tape deck to the pre-school.  I through in the remains of
the
collection of the appropriate level kits, most of which were in pieces.
I
had only one of 30 elementary teachers who even expressed an interest in
the
rest of the filmstrips and then not enough of one to spend any of her
time
after school sorting through them.  So I will be emptying those cabinets

very soon.

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