Utilizing This New Medium of Mass Communication: The Regional Film Distribution Programme at the Cleveland Public Library, 1948–1951

Abstract

In 1948, the Carnegie Corporation made grants of $25,000 to the Cleveland Public Library and $15,000 to the Missouri State Library to set up three-year regional educational film distribution programmes in northern Ohio and in Missouri of 16 mm reel-to-reel motion picture films. In Cleveland, films were distributed within a consortium of ten library systems in the region; twenty library systems participated in Missouri. These successful programmes served as models for other library systems and lasted well into the last quarter of the twentieth century, when 16 mm reel-to-reel motion picture films in libraries were replaced with videocassettes and later DVDs and the programmes were no longer necessary. This paper explores the antecedents of the programme at the Cleveland Public Library as well as the careers of the two women, Patricia Blair and Virginia Beard, who were responsible for the design of the programme and for its success. Both became nationally recognized experts on the use of 16 mm films in public libraries and rose to national prominence in the American Library Association.