Streaming Video Services

Dear Faculty and Students,

As you may know, Sawyer library offers a collection of streaming videos through several content providers:

Films On Demand
Kanopy Streaming Media
Business Management Collection: Henry Stewart Talks
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments): Science Education
PsycTHERAPY

What you are likely not aware of is the variety of purchasing models these providers employ, and how those situations have impacted Sawyer library's offerings.

Some of these purchasing models are fairly straightforward; Sawyer library pays an annual subscription fee that opens a defined catalog of videos for unlimited use by our community members. Providers that follow this model:
Business Management Collection: Henry Stewart Talks
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments): Science Education
PsycTHERAPY

Other models offer opportunity to find and instantly access a desired video in the provider's full catalog, but the library pays license fees for videos that are "triggered". As users find and view videos, the provider tracks those views, then charges Sawyer library when a particular video achieves the "trigger threshold". This is a convenient service for our users, but it offers the library very little predictability when it comes to managing budgets, as numbers of triggers fluctuate wildly even in one year.

As a result, you may have noticed a change in your access within one of our most popular streaming video providers, Kanopy Streaming Media. Currently users are able to find videos in the Kanopy catalog, but must request purchase of a video via a request form that pops up in Kanopy's platform.

Films On Demand operates on a similar purchasing model as Kanopy, but it has received markedly less traffic and therefore currently still has funds for instant access. However, given what you have just read, it is possible that Films on Demand will also need to transition to a "request" model within the semester.

Sawyer library continually reviews its resources, and there are other options for providing video streaming that we will likely trial within the semester. We hope to strike the balance between convenient access and sustainable cost management.

As always, please do not hesitate to communicate your comments, questions and concerns:

sawlib@suffolk.edu

Circulation and Reserve Desk	Reference Desk
617-573-8535	617-573-8532

Sawyer Library Hours

Sincerely,
Sawyer library staff