How can we best present info about the IAC video library?

[Dave Watterson]

Jan is busy on various parts of the IAC website, but an area where neither of us can find an ideal solution is the video library.

There are hundreds of films available, mostly collected in programmes of 90 minutes or so, in order to make a good evening's worth of viewing.
We list them by collection title, by film title, by name of film maker.
For each collection there is a page with synopses of the films and often with links to online versions and/or articles about how they were made.

But none of this grabs the attention.

The library has so much for people to enjoy ...

Ideas, please!

[col lamb]

Dave

At present the Library is listed under the IAC menu whereas there are masses of movies linked under the WATCH menu tab, is this a bit confusing?

I'd put all movies under the WATCH tab with a menu select item LIBRARY OF MOVIES FOR HIRE

Under this tab I would then have each disc with its own page where all the movies on the disc are listed on the page together with a brief synopsis and also a link to an online version of the movie.

I would layout the index with the BIAFF movie selections first then list the other A > Z

Quite a task Jan has, good luck

[john ingham]

also a link back to the home site from the forum would be good...or is it a case i just can't find it

[TimStannard]

also a link back to the home site from the forum would be good...or is it a case i just can't find it

Dave will correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect the software used for the forum doesn't allow a link to another site in the static information we see at the top of the page, only in a "sticky" or other posts. The name of the main website is at the top of the forum though.

[john ingham]

yea i can understand that..in that case..why not have a section on the forum

[Suziedave]

Hi Dave I could put a bit in Tripod and maybe other regions could do same, reminding clubs that it is available.

Suzie x

[TimStannard]

On a related topic, I wanted to look up films on the IAC website by a particular maker yesterday. I'm sure there used to be a "search by maker" function. Either it's no longer there or it difficult (for me) to find.

[Dave Watterson]

Suzy - good idea. Val Ellis should be able to write a short piece about it. She has been the heart of the library for several years, though the practical task of keeping the collection and sending out loans now falls to John Bartlett.

Tim - it is there but a bit obscure. http://www.theiac.org.uk/iac/video_libr ... ex_a-f.htm does the trick.


A revamp of the library stuff on the website is planned thanks to an earlier comment from Col who got Jan working on it. It is taking time as we are also adding many new collections to the library list
... but we do listen, we are changing and we will get there.

[TimStannard]

Tim - it is there but a bit obscure. http://www.theiac.org.uk/iac/video_libr ... ex_a-f.htm does the trick.

Ahh. My mistake. I was searching for BIAFF awards for a particular film maker, rather than films in the library. Stupid of me to mix the two up.

However, when you've nothing better to do Dave, how about an index of exactly that. BIAFF awards by film maker (I don't envy you or anyone the task of setting it up, unless of course all the records are in a spreadsheet or database somewhere, but it could be quite a useful resource).