I'm having a "What the...?" reaction to this. I'm all for saving money, but if the only consideration is "is it available online for free?" this is incredibly shortsighted. Sometimes you only need onetime access so these options might be just fine, but what about films that will be used for years?
Hulu changes content constantly and includes advertising. Netflix streaming and Amazon instant video offerings also change frequently nor are they free. Many things get posted to YouTube that aren't supposed to be there. Sure you can watch that documentary on Snagfilms - if you don't mind a lot of advertising. There is some good material on stable platforms (PBS, Annenberg, etc) but those can change too. Looking at whether to purchase a streaming license rather than the DVD is important, but licensed streaming is very different than "can we find it on YouTube?" Comparing to journal databases -- ERIC documents are (were) freely available from http://eric.ed.gov, but we pay for the added value of the indexing from EBSCO and ProQuest. p.s. Since you're in Charleston, plan to attend the National Media Market when it's held there in November. http://www.nmm.net/ Barb Bergman | Media Services & Interlibrary Loan Librarian | Minnesota State University, Mankato | (507) 389-5945 | barbara.berg...@mnsu.edu
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.
