[Libs-Or] Advice on Organizing World Cinema Collections

[Taylor Kaplan]

Hi Bonnie,

I'm a current MLIS student—so, no formal library experience yet—but I did
run the DVD section of a large record store. For whatever it's worth, we
started a "Directors" section, containing the work of notable
international/domestic directors, organized by last name. While we
would cross-file certain items in world cinema and a Criterion section,
this section was the first stop for titles by Almodovar, Fellini, Kurosawa,
whoever else. This proved mostly popular and efficient for staff and
customers alike, and eliminated a lot of confusing organizational issues.
As for titles with ambiguous origins, authorship, etc. (like Room Without a
View) I would have put that in documentaries first, world cinema second.

Not sure how any of this would work with your library's classification
system, but I thought it might be worth passing along!

Best,
Taylor

On Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 10:32 AM Brzozowski, Bonnie via Libs-Or <
libs-or at omls.oregon.gov> wrote:

> *** I have also posed this question to the PUBLIB listserv. Please excuse
> cross posting.***
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We are curious how other libraries organize/shelve their foreign
> film/world cinema movie collections. Do you organize them by country or
> language or a combination of both? Or, are they mixed in with your movies
> in English?
>
> We have movies divided by country, if other than the U.S., but we also
> have a section for DVDs in Spanish. Because it’s not clear what should go
> where, we have inconsistencies such as finding some of Pedro Almodovar’s
> titles in the Spanish DVD collection and others in the Spain section of the
> World Cinema collection.
>
> If you have any guidelines you follow as to how to assign a DVD a country
> or language, please share those as well, if you can. Many movies have a
> director hailing from one country that film a movie based in another
> country (e.g., the documentary Room Without a View
> <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14573620/> – a German filmmaker making a
> movie about migrant domestic workers in Lebanon – would that be Germany or
> Lebanon, if you divide by country?). If you divide by language, what about
> movies that are in multiple languages – how do you decide which language to
> file it under? If all of your world and movies in other languages are
> shelved together with movies in English, do you somehow sticker or indicate
> on the physical item?
>
> Any advice or thoughts on organizing movies from countries other than the
> U.S. would be welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance for any time you have to offer to my questions,
>
> Bonnie
>
> Bonnie Brzozowski (she/her)
>
> Public Services Librarian
>
>
>
> Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
>
> 645 NW Monroe Ave
>
> Corvallis, OR 97330
>
> (541) 766-6567
>
> Work week: Tuesday-Saturday
>
>
>
> *Disclaimer:* This e-mail message is a public record of the City of
> Corvallis. The contents may be subject to public disclosure under Oregon
> Public Records Law and subject to the State of Oregon Records Retention
> Schedules. (OAR:166.200.0200-405)
>
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