(This is just a random picture I grabbed off Flickr. Not a photo of the DVD collection of anyone I know.)
Something I've noticed more frequently when visiting friends and family (and even on occasion when I get access to strangers' homes – ie. going to check out used baby items or whatever) is that lots of people have a shelf full of DVD's in a prominent place in their home while the bookshelves, if they have them at all, are hidden in bedrooms or basements and are often a lot smaller then the space given over to movies.
I'm someone who doesn't think libraries should see themselves in competition with places like Chapters and Rogers Video except in the broadest sense of competing for people's limited leisure time. How can a place that offers pretty much everything it has – products and services – for no charge be competing with a place that charges (overcharges – have you rented a new release or bought a hard cover book lately?) for everything?
But conversely, I am very aware that books are in competition with movies and other entertainment options. And I sometimes wonder if books are losing out? The stats about books published per year would indicate otherwise, the 12 million initial print run for the final Harry Potter indicate otherwise and it's been proven that people are reading more than ever (although maybe not books – the range of what is “reading” also includes Internet sites, magazines, newspapers, gaming manuals, comic books and graphic novels – at least in my definition.)
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