Using Video & Streaming Video at Western

• Requests: Faculty, staff, and students may request DVD items for purchase; these requests will be evaluated based on cost, availability through Summit, and curricular relevance. Preference will be for items that are available with closed captioning; non-captioned requests will be queried before purchase.
• Help: Contact the Media Librarian; or, for help navigating the request process, contact Library Acquisitions.

• Borrowing & Holds: DVDs and other media formats can be checked out by instructors for viewing in face-to-face classroom teaching. Once an item has been identified via OneSearch, it can be brought to the Haggard Circulation Desk for checkout or requested via Hold for pickup (location: Western Library) or delivery via Document Delivery. Note that items requested via Hold may not be ready for 24 hours.
• Advance Bookings: Faculty and staff can also reserve media items more than 24 hours in advance by finding them in OneSearch, clicking Request Options, and selecting Booking. Booked items can be picked up at the Haggard Circulation Desk; or, faculty can select Document Delivery as the Pickup Location to have the item delivered to their departmental mailbox.
• Copyright: Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act of 1976 permits instructors at nonprofit educational institutions to show entire films in the course of face-to-face classroom teaching provided that the video was lawfully made and acquired.
• Help: For technical help showing DVDs and other media formats in your classroom, contact Classroom Services or ATUS. For help locating or reserving a media item, contact the Haggard Circulation Desk.  

• Physical Reserves: Instructors may place a physical media item (either a personal or Western Libraries copy) on course reserves by using the Course Reserves Request Form. More information about course reserves is available on the Libraries website.
• Locations for Viewing: Individual students may watch course reserves videos and other media in the Reserves area. Non-course reserves media may also be viewed in the reserves area.
• Copyright: DVDs and other media in the Libraries collection may be loaned out and viewed under the First Sale Doctrine. 
• Help: Contact the Reserves Specialist for help placing physical media items on course reserves. 

Both DVDs and streaming options can work for this purpose as well. While streaming video is easier in this regard, if that is not an option, faculty may place DVDs on reserve in the library. We can help your students find places to watch required films. If you are teaching a very large class, placing a DVD on reserve may not be the best option. In that case, we can explore purchasing streaming access for your students, if available.

Not all films are available to purchase in streaming format for the library, while some may be prohibitively expensive for the library to lease. This is especially true of feature films. In that case, the best approach is to ask your students to rent or purchases from a streaming platform, or in some cases to subscribe to a platform. We can help you identify which platforms carry a specific film; youcan also check on this yourself by looking at a site such as JustWatch. Some faculty may be hesitant to ask students to rent a film online. However, students are used to watching films this way. The fee is quite modest (generally 3 or 4 dollars) and can be considered as analogous to purchasing a book for classroom use. We will work with you to identify the ways in which films may be available.

Using film and video in online classes

For online classes, streaming video is the only option for students to access films for class. As already mentioned, for reasons of access and cost, the libraries may not be able to license every film needed. Asking students to rent or purchase access from an online platform is a common way that faculty make films available to their students. Contact us for further help with this as you are planning your course.

• Media Librarian

• Classroom Services / ATUS (technology for showing films in class)
• Haggard Circulation Desk (reserving and checking out media)

• Reserves Specialist (course reserves)
• Subject librarians (locating, selecting, or requesting films)
• Library Acquisitions (requesting films)
• Online video aggregators such as JustWatch.com
• Scholarly Communications Librarian (copyright)
• ATUS Canvas support team (hosting media in Canvas)

These guidelines were developed summer 2018 based on Georgetown University Library's Guide to Using Films in Courses (2017) and the University of Washington’s guide, Using Video & Streaming Video in Courses (2018). The guidelines will be reviewed at least on a yearly basis.