Library: Faculty Library Resources: Video Resources

Finding Video for Online Classes

Faculty: Please use the following decision-tree to find streaming video for online classroom environments

Last updated Jan. 5, 2023

If you have any questions, please contact your library liaison.

1. Search Kanopy, Swank, PBS Video Collection, and Films on Demand

The Library provides faculty with streaming video options for your online courses. Check out the plethora of options already available to you and your students in our Films on Demand, AVON, and Kanopy databases. See the Library’s streaming video guide to learn how you can link to these films in your online courses.

Swank: search the Swank database through GALILEO.

Films on Demand: Search the Films on Demand database through GALILEO.

Kanopy: Search the Kanopy database through GALILEO.

PBS Video Collection: Search this database through GALILEO.

Work with your library liaison to embed videos into D2L or to add them to your course reserves.

2. Search Other Sources

If your title isn’t available in the databases above, try searching Google to see whether there is a free or low-cost option available. Try searching for the name of the film, perhaps the director's name, and include the word "streaming." Example: "wise blood" streaming

If you don't see any streaming options, contact your library liaison to determine whether the Library can acquire streaming access. If so, your liaison will provide you with access instructions. Note that this option is budget-dependent. We might be able to purchase streaming access for additional media, but it does take time to finalize a streaming license, and institutional streaming costs do often exceed our budget constraints.

3. Converting from DVDs

In very specific cases, if there is no library-provided, free, or low-cost option available, excerpting small portions of DVDs via screen capture software may be allowed for use in certain educational settings. However, the Library is unable to offer this service at this time.

Streaming Video

Kanopy Licenses - November 2021

Art and Architecture in Video (AVON) This link opens in a new window
Art and Architecture in Video, an online streaming film collection, offers over 500 hours of documentaries and interviews illustrating the theory and practice of a variety of art forms and providing the context necessary for critical analysis. Ideal for both undergraduate and graduate courses, the works within this collection offer a dynamic tool to enhance understanding of visual media. The collection spans period and region, including coverage of the Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Modern, and Contemporary art. In addition to art history and theory, the collection addresses applied topics such as architectural and graphic design. The breadth of coverage makes this collection integral to both scholarship and technique, providing access to information about the seminal artists and works that continue to inspire the painters, architects, designers, and critics of today.
C-SPAN Video Library This link opens in a new window
The C-SPAN Video Library includes over 160,000 hours of coverage of C-SPAN programs since 1987. The C-SPAN Archives, which records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses, records all three C-SPAN networks seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text.
All C-SPAN programs since 1987 are digital and can be viewed online for free. Duplicate copies of programs that have aired since 1987 can be obtained and used for education, research, review or home viewing purposes. Proceeds from the sale of these programs help support the operation of the Archives. Some programs are not copyright cleared for sale. For more information, see the C-SPAN site.
Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Films on Demand consists of 15,500 video titles (77,000 segments) in Humanities & Social Sciences, Business & Economics, Health, and Science. Also included is the new collection of United Newsreels which includes an additional 260 titles (1,250 segments).
Food Studies Online This link opens in a new window
Food Studies Online is a first-of-its-kind database, bringing together rare and hard-to-find archival content with visual ephemera, text, and video. Food studies is a relatively new field of study, and its importance is felt in many major disciplines. It has social, historical, economic, cultural, religious, and political implications that reach far beyond what is consumed at the dinner table.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy provides access to thousands of award-winning films, thought-provoking documentaries, latest festival hits, classic films, tv series, and more.
Kanopy provides access to thousands of award-winning films, thought-provoking documentaries, latest festival hits, classic films, tv series, and more. The collection of films support a wide variety of subject areas including the arts, media studies, politics, diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQAI+, psychology, business, sciences, health, education, history.
PBS Video Collection (AVON) This link opens in a new window
This collection of more than 1,200 streaming videos provides an exceptional range of content with the most valuable video documentaries and series from PBS. From science to history, art to Shakespeare, diversity to business & economics, and more, the PBS Video Collection: Fourth Edition gives your patrons access to one of television’s most trusted networks.

Swank Digital Campus
We now provide a collection of 50 feature films and documentaries, including international films, for instant viewing. The specific films will rotate based on needs in support of the curriculum. This collection can save costs for students who might otherwise have to pay to stream popular films to watch for classes. These are not licensed for public performance.