Friday, May 31, 2013

Check the library's media collection online anytime

Looking to relax a little now that the spring semester has wound down?

Union University's faculty, staff and students no longer have to scan the shelves to find out if a film is owned by Emma Waters Summar Library.

To check for a specific title or scan what the library owns, patrons can click on "Movies and More" in the carousel in the top righthand corner of the library's homepage.

After clicking on the "Movies and More" carousel item (the first of five that link to different areas of the website), look for links for 1) feature films or 2) television shows under the "Quick Links" label.

Or use the search window to do a keyword search for what you're looking for. Once that title comes up, the release date and a description pop up, along with a rating.

Some patrons enjoy browsing the shelves for ideas on what to watch next. Clicking on the DVD link on that page makes that possible.

Thumbnails of cover art for all DVDs owned by the library are visible on this page, so patrons can now browse titles online. Just scroll down the page to view an A-to-Z listing.


Patrons also can view the last 50 recent releases now owned by the library or scroll down to view the last 50 recently added items to the collection.

Other features available on this page:
  • See which Blu-ray titles are owned by the library
  • Search for titles by genre
  • Search for titles by director
  • View DVDs as thumbnails or in an alphabetical listing
  • Find something new using the "Featured Directors" and "Featured Lists" links
For instance, did you know that the library owns five films that won Academy Awards in 2012? To view which ones, click on "2012 Academy Awards" under the "Featured Lists" label at the bottom of the screen.


Important search tip: Some films with the same title that are available in the library, such as William Shakespeare's Hamlet, are not noted in the listing; in that case, a patron can do a keyword search using the title of the DVD using the library's catalog, and then all the versions of Hamlet will show up. A search using "Shakespeare" pulls up a collection rather individual titles.


Also, when using the listing feature, a few helpful notations are specified: View which films are collector's editions, widescreen editions, director's cut editions, double features, anniversary editions, those classified as part of a special collection and titles classified as special editions.

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