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Best & Next Department

Looking for the latest releases on DVD or compact disc? Want to listen to your favorite band or a good fiction audiobook on your next long drive? The Best & Next Department has these materials and more, even in video, 16mm film, and audio cassette formats. Visit the Department for an outstanding collection of film, music, television series, and fiction audiobooks.


Best and Next Department, photo by Jpseph Romero

Photo by Joseph Romero

The Collection

The Best & Next Department maintains a collection of audio-visual materials spanning a wide range of subject areas. Collection highlights include over 18,000 popular and educational DVDs and videos (including titles with "descriptive video" narration for the visually impaired), almost 2,000 phonograph records, with a concentration in classical, world/folk, jazz and spoken word, and over 5,500 music CDs of popular, jazz, world/folk, gospel, country, and heavy metal music. You can also find nearly 4,500 fiction audiobooks-on-CD and more than 3,000 fiction audiobooks-on-tape

The Pratt Library is renowned for its 16mm film collection. Here you can find more than 2,100 16mm films, including Baltimore Film Festival entries, experimental and avant-garde shorts, classic movie serials, and classic feature films with public performance rights.

Resources

The Best and Next Department's resources provide access to information not located in standard book sources. Stop by the department to browse the collection, which includes:

16mm Film Collection
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16mm film projector lens in the dark

16mm Film Collection


Browse a collection of over 2,100 16mm film titles, including experimental films, Baltimore Film Festival entries, classic feature films, and more.

Public Performance Rights
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audience at a film screening

Public Performance Rights


Learn more about finding movies that you can screen in a public setting for a non-paying audience.