By By SPIROS GALLOS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - The popcorn will be popping Saturday at the Niles District Library.
The library will be offering fresh popcorn to visitors as part of the grand unveiling of the library's new DVD collection Saturday at 1 p.m.
There will be 327 titles available to check out Saturday, with about 40 that still need to be catalogued, according to Adult Services Librarian Conrad Rader.
Rader, who was put in charge of selecting titles for the collection, began building it starting with the American Film Institute's Top 100 movies of all-time.
After he had his core for the collection, Rader tried to order a variety of titles from different genres, although he will admit that there are a number of films staring Clint Eastwood, his favorite actor.
From there, he began taking requests from library members in an online survey as to what DVDs they would like in the collection.
The library received about 40 requests throughout June, July, and August. Of those requests, Rader said that he's been able to fill about 30 of them. The most unique request that Rader came across, and filled, was for a title called "Symphonica Antarctica," a tour of Antarctica set to symphonic music.
Rader said he's been doing his best to balance the number of requests against the library's resources.
The collection will also include titles some parents might find unsuitable for children, so parents should be vigilant in knowing what their children are checking out.
But people who still check out VHS tapes need not worry about DVDs replacing the library's video cassette collection.
Rader said that while the library will still order titles in VHS format, they will be scaling back their purchases in favor of the DVD format.
The check out policy for videos also applies to the new DVD collection. Households are limited to checking out 10 titles at a time, five children's and five adult. DVDs can only be checked out for seven days, everyday after that a $1 late fee applies.
The addition of the DVD collection is part of the library's long range plan, according to Rader.
The library's long range plan is the result of six months of information gathering and work between the library board of trustees, Director Nancy Studebaker, and staff members.
A DVD library was the most requested addition to the library in a survey of library members conducted in March.
Thursday, library staff was busy re-arranging materials and floor space. The space the reference library occupied was reduced, without reducing the number of materials, and the space for the young adult section was expanded.
With the addition of the DVD collection, the library will also be holding special viewings of movies and hosting "mini film festivals," Rader said.
The collection will be an on-going process, Rader said. "As more resources become available, more titles will be added," he said.