The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
The question on TV show collection development made me think of another problem with TV series and audio books --
How do you deal with multi-disk packages when there's a single lost or damaged disk?
Is there any equivalent of a car salvage yard, where we can report or send our partial sets, so that someone could break it down into 'spare parts' for other libraries to fill in their missing disks? (or find if someone else can send them the missing disk from one of their broken up collections?)
I'd be interested in if consortium or larger library systems do this, and how they manage it ... or if anyone knows of any larger efforts to do this.
Joe
A group of libraries in my area has started a shared google document that allows libraries to post multi-part sets with missing parts. The library posts the item title, what is missing, and whether they prefer to give it away or receive other sets to make it a full set.
There are over 40 items listed but I am not sure whether or not any matches have been made. It is hard to find libraries that have compatible partial sets.
I don't know if this would also apply to DVDs as I don't currently know of a vendor or publisher that does this, but some audiobook companies sell library-specific editions and will replace missing discs for free (if under contract) or for a reduced fee (something like \$10 a disc).
Alternately, it could be possible to find the individual disc for (re)sale on Amazon, eBay or similar.
The other option is to charge the patron who lost the disc for the entire set and replace the whole thing.
Midwest Tape offers replacement discs for damaged discs in audiobook or DVD sets, but replacements are not available for all items, only top-selling ones. And, if multiple discs in a set are damaged, it might make sense to replace the whole item. (DVD replacement: http://media.midwesttapes.com/pdf/dvdreplacementprogram.us.pdf Audio replacement: http://www.midwesttapes.com/audiointro?show=replacement)
Ours is a fairly large library, so while we don't have a shared doc with the rest of our consortium, we do keep track of multi-part sets with missing or damaged parts. For example, we might have two copies of season one of The West Wing; if a few discs from one set were damaged and we withdrew the item, we would keep the undamaged discs as backups for the second copy. It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing.