Comments on: At what point do we stop investing in a format?

By: RedheadFangirl

RedheadFangirl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:08:09 +0000

and to add to the mix, Wired 10/09 has an article about Netflix creating a box that “lets you watch every show and movie ever made- instantly”; a sleek black box, size of a paperback, with a few jacks in back.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:09:27 +0000

Hey Walt,

Must’ve been asleep at the typing wheel there. Thanks for pointing them out, I believe I got all the corrections made now.

By: Jen Hinderer

Jen Hinderer — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:12:09 +0000

Based on my observation of college and HS aged kids: disc technology is doomed, forget about 5 years. Us “old” folks will still hang on to it, so libraries will still have to carry it, but no one under the age of 20 that I know is at ALL interested in discs. They are a last resort when there are no other options available. BluRay won’t dominate because discs will be irrelevant. Listen to the salesperson and buy a PS3: at least it will still play games.

Kind of like this old lady librarian and her audiobooks: if a title can’t be downloaded, or isn’t at least available on a Playway I’m not interested. BUT my library still has audiocassettes. Because public libraries can’t leave our patrons behind while trying to lead them along into the future.

By: waltcrawford

waltcrawford — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:52:54 +0000

Interesting overall discussion, but a couple of points:

1. It’s Blu-ray. No e.

2. It took CDs a decade to become the dominant audio format, despite being vastly superior to predecessors in convenience and sound quality. Blu-ray offers no edge in convenience…and, realistically, it’s only been a “single choice” for 18 months. So saying “it’s not going to happen because it hasn’t happened” is a bit premature. (That said, I doubt it will *ever* become dominant–but I think it’s got a healthy life ahead of it.)

3. HD downloads mostly aren’t–they may be sent as HD formats, but with so much data compression that they’re not anywhere near Blu-ray/broadcast HD quality.

As to the real question: My answer, other than archival purposes, would be “when it’s no longer circulating and when better formats handle all your patrons’ needs.” But of course I’m not in a library.