One strategy is to shift the cost to students under the reasoning that they purchase books for required reading. In many cases individual access is quite inexpensive, $2.99 to $9.99 is what I have seen. This is feasible mostly for feature films where you can go to canistream.it and copy or embed the link to the film title's page. The linked page shows the viewer which vendors are offering the film, e.g. Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, GoogleView,etc., the cost and in what format, e.g. DVD, stream, download. It is not infallibly accurate but it is a helpful resource, especially for titles not covered by Swank or Criterion Pictures.
If you have the in-house know-how you can do what we do and purchase streaming rights only for material needed for classes rather than purchasing access to a database not knowing which titles will be used. Other options are something like Films on Demand, Docuseek2 or New Day Digital where you can purchase a bundle of titles or individual titles and the films stream from the vendor's platform. Wherever you purchase you should try to obtain either life of file format or perpetual rights so you are not paying over and over again for the same content. This is an extension of the "buy the new format logic" we've been using with video for years. For example, many vendors offered discounts on DVD pricing if you had a copy of the VHS. You bought the new format and paid for it one time. As a library you often paid a higher price in recognition of the fact that multiple users will be viewing your copy. I would not recommend short term licensing as it is very time consuming to maintain access for the course(s) needing to use it. Best, Jo Ann Jo Ann Reynolds Reserve Services Coordinator University of Connecticut Homer Babbidge Library 369 Fairfield Road, Unit 1005RR Storrs, CT 06269-1005 860-486-1406 voice 860-486-0584 fax From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mardi Mahaffy Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2014 12:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Videolib] Video Streaming Options Hello all, I'm hoping to draw upon your collective wisdom to find a solution to a problem we're facing at my library. We are seeing a strong need to provide some form of streaming video content to our faculty for use in their face to face and online classes, but we are unable to add another ongoing database subscription to our budget. I'm wondering about the possibility of buying one time, short term streaming licenses to individual titles, and using some kind of freeware such as Avalon to push them out to classes. Do any of you have a similar program that is working well for you? Is there another solution you might recommend? Any help you have to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mardi Mardi Mahaffy Interim Department Head Reference and Research Services Dept. New Mexico State University 575-646-6925
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.
