The Bellevue Public Library has cleared out its collections of VHS tapes and art prints to make room for more popular items.
Director Guadalupe Mier said the library has been reducing its collection of a few hundred VHS tapes over the past three years. He said they have been turned over to the library's ongoing book sale, priced at 50 cents each, to raise money for the Bellevue Library Foundation Inc.
"We needed to clear some space out," Mier said. "For the VHS, they just weren't going out as fast as they were in the past. DVDs are doing much better."
Mier said the library hasn't purchased art prints for a decade, and checkouts of the nearly 200 prints have not been going well.
He said the prints were intended to be available for Bellevue residents to put on their walls and periodically change out with new prints. The problem was that library patrons wanted to keep checking out the same print because it matched their décor.
Because the prints are more valuable, Mier said, they are not being included in the library's ongoing sale.
Some of the art prints are being reassigned to offices at City Hall, he said. The rest of the collection has been put in storage for now.
"We'll check with Finance and see if they can arraign a sale," Mier said. "Either an auction or some other method that they would have for excess materials."
Other library services are in high demand. He said many patrons have been taking advantage of the library's subscription to Nebraska OverDrive, which offers e-books and audio books for loan.
"We've had a deluge of people coming in about their Kindles and Nooks," Mier said.
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