
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990                   TAG: 9007080204
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WISE                                LENGTH: Short

LIBRARY GETS SPENDING CAP ON VIDEOS

In response to criticism that its patrons preferred movies to books, a Southwest Virginia library system will place a 10 percent spending cap on the amount of state money used to buy videotapes.

The move by the Lonesome Pine Regional Library Board on Thursday came a month after a state watchdog group criticized the large number of videos in the library system.

If not supplemented with local money, the spending cap will cut by more than 60 percent the amount spent on videos in the Lonesome Pine system. Over the past five years, the library system has spent an average of 36 percent of its state aid on videos and 52 percent on books.

In one year, 1988, the system spent $17,355 more of its state aid on videos than on books. That choice was noted in a report issued by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a a watchdog on state agencies.

The commission noted book circulation in the system, particularly by juveniles, has gone down since videotapes became available in 1983.

Comparable library systems in Virginia spent about 6.2 percent of their state aid on videotapes in 1989 and had about 1,180 videos. The Lonesome Pine system spent 32.5 percent and had 13,469 videos, second only to heavily populated Fairfax County.

by CNB