To content
Opportunities

Video Library

Visit the Video Library

  • EF 50 R 3.220
  • Office Hours:
    • Mo 10:00 - 12:00
    • Tu 9:00 - 11:00
    • Th 8:00 - 10:00

Contact us:

Drs. Cass and Kane conferring life membership of the EVL on former student Birgit Nebert in December 2003. © EVL TU Dortmund
Drs. Cass and Kane conferring life membership of the EVL on former student Birgit Nebert (December 2003).

Become a Member

  • The English Video Library is open to all staff and students in the department.
  • The Video Library is a service provided by the English Language Skills team and the Fakultät Kulturwissenschaften .
  • You can become a new member by making a returnable deposit of €15. Borrowing Blu-Rays, DVDs, or Games is then free of charge.

History

The EVL was born in 1998 as a direct consequence of our former colleague Stephen Speight winning the university prize for tuition. Rather than taking all the credit himself, Stephen generously considered this award to be recognition for the quality of teaching by the entire Sprachpraxis team. And so we sat down together to think about what we could do with the prize money. In fact, the decision came very quickly and almost without discussion: we would put the money into a video library to make English-language films and television programmes available to our students – and, of course, to ourselves.

This was the beginning of the English Video Library: occupying at first no more than a couple of shelves in the office Stephen and I shared, subsequently, as the collection grew and grew (by this point Richard had joined us and donated his Buffy collection!), it relocated to our first proper home opposite 3.214, and then more recently to the spacious premises we now share with the wiki team since we moved back to EF 50 at the beginning of WS08/9.

As the Video Library has grown, so has the work load required to keep it running. Here we are enormously indebted to the two student “librarians” who have made such an enthusiastic and effective contribution over the last couple of years: firstly Tom Bauernfeind, and, more recently, Vanessa Lehmann. For most students, Vanessa is now the public face of the Video Library.

Through most of the first decade we did not have a guaranteed source of income, and yet we have still managed to grow our collection into what it is today. From the start the EVL has benefited from the support of both the Department and the Fachschaft. And we have been extremely grateful for the generosity of various individual students who have given their time – and their videos – to the EVL, or who have simply donated their deposits when they have left university. More recently, we have had a small but steady income stream from book sales (second-hand books donated to the EVL – donations gratefully received!), from fines for late returns (fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately – not too many), and from the more swingeing fines for speaking German in Richard’s WOCs!

In the days of videotape, the fact that the videos in our collection were in English clearly set us apart from the average local video-rental shop. In the early days we tried to maintain a balance between entertainment and education, i.e. videos relevant to students in an English department. More recently, since the switch to DVDs, we have bought fewer of the more commercial “blockbuster” titles (easily available in Germany anyway with English soundtracks). Instead we have concentrated particularly on three areas: film or TV adaptations of works of literature (e.g. Dickens, Shakespeare, Jane Austen); films frequently used in seminars, and documentaries; and, finally, TV drama series. In these areas we now have quite an impressive collection. However, these are not hard and fast rules and we are happy to consider requests.

Certainly changes in technology. Our videos are mostly in the PAL format (for the European market). Most DVDs are Region 2 (Europe). When we started buying DVDs (rather than VHS tapes), the demand was at first negligible. Hardly anyone could play them! Almost overnight that changed, and demand for videos dwindled. We are now replacing some key titles with DVDs to make sure that they remain available to everyone. But what of Blu-Ray? Presumably, at some point we will have to decide again to switch to the new format. When that will be is anyone’s guess. But one thing is certain: we will be there!

Calendar

To event list

Location & approach

The campus of TU Dort­mund University is located close to interstate junction Dort­mund West, where the Sauerlandlinie A 45 (Frankfurt-Dort­mund) crosses the Ruhrschnellweg B 1 / A 40. The best interstate exit to take from A 45 is “Dort­mund-Eichlinghofen” (closer to South Campus), and from B 1 / A 40 “Dort­mund-Dorstfeld” (closer to North Campus). Signs for the uni­ver­si­ty are located at both exits. Also, there is a new exit before you pass over the B 1-bridge leading into Dort­mund.

To get from North Campus to South Campus by car, there is the connection via Vogelpothsweg/Baroper Straße. We recommend you leave your car on one of the parking lots at North Campus and use the H-Bahn (suspended monorail system), which conveniently connects the two campuses.

TU Dort­mund University has its own train station (“Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät”). From there, suburban trains (S-Bahn) leave for Dort­mund main station (“Dort­mund Hauptbahnhof”) and Düsseldorf main station via the “Düsseldorf Airport Train Station” (take S-Bahn number 1, which leaves every 15 or 30 minutes). The uni­ver­si­ty is easily reached from Bochum, Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Duisburg.

You can also take the bus or subway train from Dort­mund city to the uni­ver­si­ty: From Dort­mund main station, you can take any train bound for the Station “Stadtgarten”, usually lines U41, U45, U 47 and U49. At “Stadtgarten” you switch trains and get on line U42 towards “Hombruch”. Look out for the Station “An der Palmweide”. From the bus stop just across the road, busses bound for TU Dort­mund University leave every ten minutes (445, 447 and 462). Another option is to take the subway routes U41, U45, U47 and U49 from Dort­mund main station to the stop “Dort­mund Kampstraße”. From there, take U43 or U44 to the stop “Dort­mund Wittener Straße”. Switch to bus line 447 and get off at “Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät S”.

The AirportExpress is a fast and convenient means of transport from Dortmund Airport (DTM) to Dortmund Central Station, taking you there in little more than 20 minutes. From Dortmund Central Station, you can continue to the university campus by interurban railway (S-Bahn). A larger range of international flight connections is offered at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), which is about 60 kilometres away and can be directly reached by S-Bahn from the university station.

The H-Bahn is one of the hallmarks of TU Dort­mund University. There are two stations on North Campus. One (“Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät S”) is directly located at the suburban train stop, which connects the uni­ver­si­ty directly with the city of Dort­mund and the rest of the Ruhr Area. Also from this station, there are connections to the “Technologiepark” and (via South Campus) Eichlinghofen. The other station is located at the dining hall at North Campus and offers a direct connection to South Campus every five minutes.

The facilities of TU Dortmund University are spread over two campuses, the larger Campus North and the smaller Campus South. Additionally, some areas of the university are located in the adjacent “Technologiepark”.

Site Map of TU Dortmund University (Second Page in English).