Classroom Support of VHS Players to Cease as of June 1, 2017

We want to give you as much notice as possible about our plan to cease classroom support of VHS players on June 1, 2017. This plan was created with the input from the UMBC Classroom Committee, the AOK Library, and DoIT using the information gathered from the campus-wide VHS Usage Survey distributed in March of 2014.

Since the summer of 2012 both new and renewed technology-rich learning spaces have not included a VHS player. Our current pool of devices is beginning to fail and we are finding it difficult to purchase replacement equipment. Increasingly we see challenges with the quality of existing VHS tapes as they age. Campus usage and library circulation data confirms the decline in the use of VHS media. In addition, many of our VHS tapes do not meet the requirements for accessibility of instructional materials. For instance, do the VHS resources that you use now include closed captioning?

DoIT will continue to have a limited number of VHS players available for delivery from AV Services throughout the transition. The AOK Library will continue to provide VHS viewing stations and a screening room after June, 2017.If you currently own VHS tapes that you use for instruction, you should begin to develop a strategy for migrating that material to a digital or online format. Staff in DoIT and the Library will be glad to assist if you have questions regarding the transition from VHS tapes to updated media formats.

To help, we recommend the following:

 Many VHS tapes used for instruction are now available online by subscription or purchased as DVD material. DoIT is working with the Library to investigate options for streaming media.

 Bookmark clips and desired content in your browser.

We hope that by giving you as much advance warning as possible we can begin working with groups to make an orderly transition before VHS tapes are impossible to support and this impacts your instruction.

Please visit our FAQ page at https://wiki.umbc.edu/display/faq/Classroom+VHS+Player+Retirement

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.