A question of longevity: ongoing value of documentary film in an academic library

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the use of physical and streaming documentary film collections available in a mid-sized academic library, specifically relating to the length of time that documentary films may remain relevant for curricular use.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors defined documentary film for the purposes of the study and created data sets of our non-fiction film holdings. They weeded out titles that could not be defined as documentaries and ran use reports for streaming and physical collections. They also used Power BI to visualize the data more clearly.

Findings

The authors found that documentary films could remain useful for 25 years, with certain films remaining relevant even longer.

Originality/value

These findings indicate that purchasing or licensing streaming documentary film packages provides value, including older content. In addition, the authors will continue to make purchases of physical DVD or Blu Ray content when necessary and keep these collections up to 30 years before heavily weeding them.