DVDs

Goldsmiths Library has a vast collection of over 10,000 DVDs. Feature films range from Hollywood blockbusters to world cinema to art house.  We also have documentaries for every subject, recordings of plays, operas and musicals, lots of TV series and many more gems.

DVDs are free to borrow – undergraduates can take out 4 at a time, and postgraduates even more. Remember that DVDs are for 7 day loan, and must be renewed or returned on time otherwise you have late fines of £1 per day.

The DVD collection can be found on the 2nd floor and is shelved by Dewey Decimal Classification, just like the print books. This means that documentaries are arranged by subject, making them easy to browse. It’s also easy to browse films by country of origin.

Make sure you look on the catalogue for the exact class mark if you are looking for a particular film. The easiest way to search for DVDs is to chose the videos/DVDs search to narrow down your results. For special edition films or TV series with multiple disks, we separate each disk into its own box – make sure you chose the right disk.

When a DVD is required for a course, the library will often put one or two copies aside at the help desk for use in the library. This ensures there’s always a copy of the DVD in the library for students to watch. The location will look something like this:

• 791.437  CRO Course Reference DVD [Helpdesk]

These DVDs can only be viewed in the library.  We have DVD players for students to use with headphones, and group viewings rooms that you do not need to book, so small groups can watch DVDs together.

There are other DVDs kept at the help desk which are borrowable, but that we need to keep a closer eye on, usually because they are imported or hard to come by. These will have a location that looks like this:

• 791.437 CRO DVD [Helpdesk]
  

Videos

The library also has an impressive collection of over 12,500 videos, many of which contain rare recordings that are difficult to find in DVD format. The collection is housed in a separate room next to the DVD collection and viewing rooms. Videos are arranged by individual number (rather than Dewey class mark) and therefore need to be looked up on the catalogue first. On the catalogue, video locations look like this:

• 4471 Video [2nd Floor]

There are video/VHS players to watch videos in the library, or they can be borrowed as normal for 7 day loan. Videos will need to be brought to the help desk for borrowing and returning.

Check out the audio-visual collection web page for more information and links to online resources.