Some very salient points here, Gary. This is one email I am keeping in a folder (as opposed to the Inbox with holds over 2500 "incidental" emails! :)
Christine Crowley Dean of Learning Resources Northwest Vista College 3535 N. Ellison Dr. San Antonio, TX 78251 210.486.4572 voice 210.486.4504 fax NEW NAME AND [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Videolib] Larry D. question re streaming: few more thoughts Hi all On my walk to work this am, I thought of a few other issues and concerns re the remote/local streaming question. One of the benefits of local streaming is the unlimited concurrent use possibilities...on the other hand, many vendor-supplied online electronic resources (print, included) put limits on concurrent usage, either because of network limits or, frankly, because the vendor wants more money for more concurrent users. If Newsreel, Icarus, WMM, Bullfrog, et al decide to go to the remote access model--in whole or as one option--I would be concerned by the imposition of such limits. Price (ah! pricing): the current model for abovementioned seems to have shaken down to price of license (3-5yrs) = price of DVD x 2... In a vendor-supplied streaming scenario, it's conceivable that an institution may ONLY want the streamed version (and not the DVD), in which case the above pricing is waaaaay out of line. And speaking of DVDs: a concern that's certainly not unique with video is the fate of collections and collection access in an electronic content environment. Let's suppose there's a partial or wholesale shift to licensing access, rather than maintaining collections of physical artifacts such as DVDs...We all know how volatile the video marketplace is (vendors keep telling us that the reason they can't offer perpetual rights is because THEIR contracts with filmmakers are never perpetual...right?) What does this bode for long term access? A move to distributor-supplied streamed video means that long-term access will always be an issue. On the other hand, local delivery models usually involve taking a purchased DVD and cranking it into digital for streamed delivery for an institution's server. In such models, even if the rights to stream go away in time, there's still a DVD around. (In fact, I'd argue that the licenses we're currently signing with distributors to locally serve video should ALWAYS include a clause that says, if a title for which a streaming license has been purchased goes "out of distribution", the institution has the right to continue maintaining and delivering the digital copy) Another thought: seems to me that delivery from a remote distributor's server makes arrangements such as consortial and regional buying increasingly feasible... Our distributor friends need to be thinking about the pricing models for such arrangements which are both realistic and scalable. Gary Handman Director Media Resources Center Moffitt Library UC Berkeley 510-643-8566 [email protected] http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC "I have always preferred the reflection of life to life itself." --Francois Truffaut VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors. VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
