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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Roberta: You said you wanted to know something of the history of the question. Well, I can tell you that when I was conference chair in ancient times (the 1985 conference in Los Angeles), I wondered the same thing. Like you, I've had very good experiences at other conferences buying the tapes when I either couldn't attend the conference at all or couldn't attend a particular session. The catch is that (at least back then) it was technologically too complicated (and expensive) to use ARLIS volunteers to do the taping and then it would have been too time-consuming (and, again, expensive to rent the equipment) to make the copies, take the orders, package them, mail them out, etc., etc. It turns out that all of the above is done by companies that conference planners hire. HOWEVER, this service is used by really big conferences (AAM, CAA, ALA, etc.) and was just not cost-efficient for ARLIS. I was told we would need at least 2-3 times as many attendees as we usually have to make it worthwhile. It's still a great idea, if someone could figure out a way to do it cost- effectively. Joan Benedetti