e-Video: Streaming Video for Faculty

As part of our mission to support teaching, learning and research, the Bothell Campus Library offers UW Bothell instructors streaming media course support service for fully online or off-site courses. This streaming service may enable students to access a selection of their required films online from on or off-campus locations.

While the library is committed to and prioritizes streaming media support when possible for fully online and off-site courses, we will also consider suggestions from UW Bothell instructors for streaming media in support of their on-campus and hybrid courses. This is contingent upon availability of funding and favorable licensing terms.

The Bothell Campus Library must purchase the licensing rights to stream any video we use in an educational context, even when we own physical copies in our collection. In some cases, we may not be able to acquire titles due to prohibitively high cost, restrictive vendor licensing terms, or nonexistent licenses. The cost of licensing a new title can range from $200-$600 per video, typically for a duration of three years. If we are working with a new distributor, the license negotiation process may take up to two months.

Considerations for Streaming Media Requests

• The request must be submitted by a UW Bothell instructor for their credit-bearing and degree program affiliated UW Bothell course.
• Priority will be given to courses that are fully online or offered at an off-site location.
• Priority will be given to films that are required viewing for all students in the class.
• Streaming licenses or streaming rights for educational and documentary films must be available for purchase.
• Streaming licenses for readily available feature films and television shows will not be purchased.
• Films which are readily available at a reasonable cost to students through a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, or through a DVD retailer will not be licensed for streaming.
• Note that setting up streaming agreements with vendors can be time-consuming. Please plan ahead, allowing up to two months to license these materials.
• Upon expiration of a license, the library will apply the above criteria for license renewal decisions.

UW Bothell faculty whose courses meet the above considerations should contact Reserves staff at reserves@uw.edu. Library staff will research license availability and streaming options.

For all other media requests (e.g., help finding streaming videos, film purchase suggestions), please contact your subject librarian.

How to Stream Your Own Audio and Video Clips

If you are interested in learning how to stream your own audio and video clips in Canvas, contact Digital Learning & Innovation and visit the Step-by-Step Guide to Copyright Compliance for Electronic Course Materials page.

As affiliated UW Libraries' users, Cascadia faculty and students are welcome to use our growing collection of streaming videos.

• Due to the public health crisis, the library has some limited funding available for streaming licenses to support Cascadia College.

If you would like us to research a streaming license:

1. Contact our Reserves staff reserves@uw.edu and share as much information as you have about the film (title, website, etc.)
2. Streaming is available for Course Reserves only and must be required viewing for the entire class (i.e. we will not license films for a “suggested viewing” list)
3. Academic streaming licenses often cost $200-600 per film. Thus, requests will be purchased on a "first come, first serve" basis, contingent on available funding
4. Please have a contingency plan if we aren’t able to license a film, or meet your required timeframe. Your Subject Librarian may be able to help you identify alternate films.

Some caveats:

1. Consumer streaming platforms (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu) do not offer institutional licenses for academic libraries. Netflix does allow a few films to be used by educators for classroom viewing, but these are limited (and they don’t make them easy to find!). If you see that a commercial streaming service is showing a film, we can check to see if an academic library vendor also licenses that film. If not, students would need to rent the film through the commercial streaming provider.
2. Many of our streaming vendors are already set up for working with academic libraries (e.g. Kanopy, Swank, Films Media Group, etc.), but smaller, independent filmmakers may not have established vendor relationships with academic libraries. Those individual licenses can sometimes take weeks to set up.  Please do ask, but be prepared that an a-typical license will take extra time, and may not be feasible.
3. Due to the cost of streaming licenses, we will need to resume our normal streaming guidelines when the campus has fully re-opened (i.e. due to the high cost, we encourage Cascadia faculty to use physical media whenever possible, and to work with their Subject Librarian to find appropriate existing streaming options).

Reserves staff are happy to answer questions about adding links to UW-restricted online videos in your Canvas course pages.

Please contact your Subject Librarian for additional help finding streaming videos, or to suggest films to purchase for the library collection.

Use an online video aggregator like Reelgood to search across pay-per-view streaming services to find where and for how much a movie is available. If you are a UW Bothell / Cascadia College instructor and would like assistance finding streaming films for your students, please contact your subject librarian.