Issue date: 3/10/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Christine Soriaga Educational Media Services is located on the fourth floor of the Annex and is open until 11 p.m. during the week and until 5 p.m. on weekends. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Christine Soriaga [Click to enlarge]

Before pirated movie downloads, before blue-ray DVDs and before midnight openings, there were Blockbuster nights.

These were the nights when one would go to an ancient site called a movie rental store. However, the Red Box rentals quickly took over the biz by offering hard-to-refuse one dollar rentals.

Texas A&M's Educational Media Services has contributed to the ease of returning to those "couch potato" movie nights.

Few students know the media services in the library annex offers free DVD rentals to A&M students for three days.

It's as easy as finding your movie on the library's Web site, then picking it up.

The library's old rental policy required that the films needed to stay on the premises to be seen in one of the viewing rooms and returned within a few hours.

"I'm a movie fanatic, but sometimes it can get expensive and I don't always feel like driving to Blockbuster or a Red Box to rent a movie," said Salvador Lopez, a sophomore petroleum engineering major.

"Now, I can stop by the library in between my classes and pick something up at no cost to me whatsoever. I think it's a great idea and the library should definitely let students know about this offer."

The library's Web site offers a convenient way to browse titles by genre, origin, language or theme.

For this reason, A&M's personal Blockbuster is not limited to English language or American films.

Students and staff may also check out films with a limit of three at a time for three days. Some films, however, are reserved for courses and are not able to be taken home.

"I try to buy pretty much any movie. I go to Best Buy and pick up new releases for the library's collection," Linda Bair, library associate, said. "We're also starting a blue ray collection since so many students now have high definition TVs and they get checked out a lot."

The library offers the option to request a movie not in the collection. On the library's Web site, under services then audio/video, a student or faculty member can click on "Request a purchase" and fill out a short form to request the movie they want.

The library will place a request and notify the person of the decision. When the movie has arrived, another notification will be sent to pick up the movie for viewing.

A common misconception are that films are only educational and for classroom purposes and offer no variety or modern appeal. However, popular titles in stock include: "Hancock," "The Dark Knight," "Wanted" and the "Saw" series.

"It really saves me money and it's more convenient for me," said Lilly Chapa, freshman general studies major. "I live on campus so I can just walk to the library and get a movie. Usually me and my friends will have movie nights and we'll just check out a movie and take it to our dorm."

The library offers a two-day grace period afterwards with a 25 cent penalty for every day after that.

The renewing and recall options are not available online, but can be done through e-mail to Bair.

With the cost of movie rentals skyrocketing to almost $5 a film, students can benefit from this new offer and save a few extra bucks by renting locally instead of expensively.

Many students are not aware of the money they could be saving just by using the resources offered by A&M.

The Educational Media Services also offers other rentals like iPods, projectors, screens, digital cameras and calculators. Most are lent for a week or more and require no fee.

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