There are no more excuses to be made for not getting knee-deep into the Libraries’ music collections.

The Fine Arts Library (FAL) has officially launched a retrieval service for its combined collection of audiovisual materials. Now users can have CDs, DVDs and other media shipped to the most convenient library branch for pick-up in around a couple of days.

I happened to be working with our Social Work & Government Librarian, PG Moreno for an article in our print newsletter, when I noticed that he had a box set of Stax/Volt Records singles on his desk, and I immediately became covetous.

“Is that yours?”

“Nope, it’s from the FAL. I’ve been getting stuff delivered pretty regularly through retrieval.”

As soon as I got back to my computer, I searched the catalog and placed my first order: The Best of Chess vocal groups, volume one delivered to PCL. A couple of days later, I got an email letting me know that the CD is at the desk, and minutes later I was cruising through the work day with the honey-toned stylings of the Four Tops, Moonglows and Monotones as my soundtrack.

The idea for this new service arose from access concerns about the recent relocation of the AV Library to the FAL’s collections, but it’s likely that there will be similar efforts in the future out of necessity to make library materials more accessible to users. Already we have a retrieval system in place for the high-density storage facilities the Libraries’ have at the Pickle Research Campus, as well as for the overflow collections at the Collections Deposit Library.

It’s not hard to imagine that new technologies, especially audio and video streaming and the growth of e-books could eventually make the Libraries even more easily accessible.