Bonney Lake, Lakewood Libraries Install DVD Banks to Prevent Theft

The Pierce County Library System (PCLS) has launched a pilot program to curb media theft in its two branches experiencing the highest annual loss–Bonney Lake and Lakewood. The Media Bank Movie Machine could save Pierce County Library an estimated $100,000 annually in lost or stolen DVDs.

“PCLS provides browsing access to high-demand DVDs in each of our libraries. This collection is incredibly popular, both to check out, and unfortunately, to steal,” said Sally Porter Smith, spokeswoman for the Pierce County Library.

The machines were installed in January. Movie Towers, a similar machine with a different format, were installed in the Summit, Parkland and University Place branches.

The Lakewood and Bonney Lake branches were chosen to be the guinea pigs of the Media Bank program due to high amounts of theft at both branches. The Lakewood Branch lost 2,900 DVDs in 2010 and Bonney Lake lost 1,575 media items during the same time.

“We were losing a lot of money in the old system; theft was high,” said Lauren Murphy, the head librarian for the Bonney Lake branch. “This new program helps us be more responsible with taxpayer money and to help popular movie collections stop disappearing.”

Pierce County Library spent approximately $150,000 on the new machines across the five branches. Depending on the machines' success, more could pop up around Pierce County, including one at the Sumner library branch.

“It’s a pilot program, to see what works and what doesn’t,” said Murphy. “The machines aren’t cheap, but I think they’ll pay for themselves in the long run.”

In the new media bank system, library cardholders must scan their cards in the machine and plug in an account password before renting a video. Videos can be reserved online through the library system website, but reservations expire after five hours and must be checked out from the library where the DVDs are ordered.

The selection runs the gamut of categories, from adult drama to Disney, and users can sort by "new" and "all" releases within a category, as well as search for a title directly.

Media Bank Movie Machines work a lot like Redbox, except that the movies are free to check out for cardholders. Users can reserve three DVDs at a time and may check out three movies at one time. Each item can be checked out for three days. A 15-cent late charge is placed on the cardholder’s account and users are penalized the same way they would be if they don’t return a library book.

Users must return the DVDs to the machine at the branch they borrowed it from during library hours. If someone drops a DVD in the book slot after-hours, they will be charged the late fee for their book if it wasn’t returned on time.

Bonney Lake library cardholder Trisha Noel said she enjoys having access to the new DVD machine.

“I love it, and my kids love it,” said Noel. “We stopped using Redbox because all the movies are here that we’d want to see, and it saves us a lot of money. But, you have to get here early to get the good releases, because they do go fast.”

Murphy said that the machine can hold about 1,000 DVDs and the collection will be replaced and modified as new movies are released, or old ones don’t seem as popular. Currently, the Bonney Lake branch has more new releases sitting in the library stockroom waiting for bar codes. Murphy added that while the machine has been "super-popular" with citizens, it requires minimal upkeep from the library staff.

“It’s been so great that people can help themselves, we’ve barely had to intervene at all,” said Murphy. “There haven’t been very many problems, considering it’s a new technology.”