We have been using this service for a little over a year, as a supplement to our more traditional video reserve services. We have a large number of on-site and online courses using film, as well as a very large commuter student population. Providing selected films online provides an additional service for course support. Sure, in many cases students can rent the films, and we typically have copies of the films on reserve or in the circulating stacks as well. Currently, this service is supported by funds from the student technology fees. This was proposed and approved by committees that represented students, faculty, the Library, Instructional Technology, etc. We are still testing and tweaking a year in. Please see my responses to your specific questions below.
Rue McKenzie Coordinator of Media Collections Academic Resources University of South Florida Library 4202 Fowler Ave., LIB122 Tampa, FL 33620 813-974-6342 From: videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu [mailto:videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Stanton, Kim Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 3:41 PM To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu Subject: [Videolib] Swank Digital Campus Hi all, I think we're about to license our first streaming film through Swank Digital Campus. The usage scenario is so different from what I normally deal with. Typically, my library licenses individual films from distributers for use by all current student & faculty, for a term ranging from 3 years to perpetuity and we stream the content from a library-run server and management system. The Swank content would be license for 1 semester, would only be accessible to a specific class and would be hosted off-site. I'm trying to figure out what my library's role should be in the Swank scenario. If you've used Swank Digital Campus at your institution (or deal with other short term/ course specific digital rights), could you tell me how this was handled. * Who is responsible for the transaction - i.e whose name is on the contract/ invoice? The Library, the academic department, the faculty member, another campus group? -- We (the Library) are handling this. The licensing/invoicing is coordinated by me (with assistance from our Electronic Resources Coordinator), and the actual scheduling of the specific titles is handled by one staff person (who until recently was the sole point person for media reserves). * Who directly pays for the content? - As I mentioned, right now the content is paid for by funds provided through our Student Technology Fee. This service is part of a larger effort to increase access to online video content, although 95% of what we have been adding is in perpetuity. * If both of the above were handled by the library, was there any resistance to this sort of short term, limited access being the library's responsibility? --Well, it does add an additional layer to our already overtaxed reserve processes. And, it has required some additional communication with faculty regarding the guidelines. It also requires faculty to think a bit differently regarding the timeframe these titles are being placed on "reserve". There is more specificity required in order for the rotation of titles to work as effectively as possible. We try to provide approximately different 25 titles each month, but sometimes titles stay available longer. There are a couple of ways to set up the service depending upon what your institution needs. The service has worked great for many faculty, and for a few it ended up not providing what they needed. No one here in the Library has shown any resistance to the added responsibility, since the only ones really effected are the two of us handling the service on this end. * Is there another department on your campus that more directly supports development and resources for online courses? What was their involvement? -- Separate from the Swank service, when it comes to online video content that the Library wants to acquire for permanent or long-term access, we pretty much have had to handle the majority of processes ourselves, which can at times include (in addition to handling the licensing/invoicing processes) extracting the content from DVDs, encoding that content (or encoding MPEG4 files provided by vendors), uploading the content to a secure on-site server, and performing all the other typical stuff like cataloging, etc. Again, some of this is being funded by the student technology fees, but that funding is finite (hence the focus on permanent additions to the collections). When these funds end, we'll have to see. In all honesty, we did originally plan to have more support from Instructional Technology, but things changed very early on (but after the Library was committed to move forward developing this collection utilizing these funds). I will admit that what we are doing right now cannot be maintained as is, and we will have to adjust accordingly in the very near future. Thanks! Kim Stanton Head, Media Library University of North Texas kim.stan...@unt.edu P: (940) 565-4832 F: (940) 369-7396
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.
