Catch up on Ebertfest Films You've Missed

In fewer than 11 days, on November 1, Ebertfest 2011 passes go on sale.  The worst part about getting a pass is knowing you have months until you get to use it.  "The waiting...the waiting"  Wasn't that from My Winnipeg?

My Winnipeg was shown at Roger Ebert's 11th Film Festival in 2009.  If you had your copy of Ebertfest: The Checklist handy, you could see that for yourself.

Ebertfest: The Checklist is exactly what it sounds like.  Organized by year and listing the films in the order that they were shown, the checklist provides, 1. helpful boxes for you to check out the films you've seen, and 2. the call numbers of DVDs so you can easily find them in our collection.

I do need to make an appeal to you devoted patrons of the Urbana Free and fans of Ebertfest.  In the Checklist, you'll also notice that some of the titles have no call number.  We cannot obtain these films because they either have never been distributed on DVD or they are out of print and sold at high prices among collectors.

We would love to be able to offer the entire slate of Ebertfest-screened films to our patrons, so if you're feeling generous, please consider seeking out some of titles we're missing and donating them to our collection.  Be sure to note that they are to fill this need and that they should go straight to me, Brian Looker, as I manage our entertainment DVD collection.

Now, how can you get your copy of the Checklist?  You can come to the library, where we have them freely available for the taking.  If you're out-of-state, as many Ebertfest fans are, you can print (double-sided) and staple your own copy from the PDF on our website--the call numbers may not help you, but you have to admit it's a good-looking list. 

The online version of the list is up on our site, and we are working to add in links to each DVD record in our catalog.

Separate from the Checklist, I have created a cheat code for our catalog so that you may search and find all of the Ebertfest titles we currently own.  Go to our library catalog, and in the Author search box, type and search for Roger Ebert's Film Festival--the result should be a list of DVDs showing not only call number, but availability, AND, as always, you can place requests on titles with your library barcode and PIN.