Research Article

 

Swimming Upstream in the Academic Library: Exploring Faculty Needs for Library Streaming Media Collections

 

Elsa Loftis

Humanities and Acquisitions Librarian, Assistant Professor

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon, United States of America

Email: eloftis@pdx.edu

 

Carly Lamphere

Science Librarian

Reed College

Portland, Oregon, United States of America

Email: lampherec@reed.edu

 

Received: 2 Feb. 2023                                                                 Accepted: 23 Aug. 2023

 

 

Creative Commons C image 2023 Loftis and Lamphere. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttributionNoncommercialShare Alike License 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one.

 

 

DOI: 10.18438/eblip30317

 

 

Abstract

 

Objective - To compare Portland State University’s (PSU) local experience of using streaming media to national and international trends identified in a large qualitative study by Ithaka S+R. This comparison will help librarians better understand if the PSU Library is meeting the needs of faculty with its streaming media collection through a series of faculty interviews.

 

Methods and Intervention - Two librarians from PSU participated in a large, collaborative, two-part study conducted by Ithaka S+R in 2022, with 23 other academic institutions in the United States, Canada, and Germany As part of this study, the authors conducted a series of interviews with faculty from PSU’s Social Work and Film Studies departments to gather qualitative data about their use, expectations, and priorities relating to streaming media in their teaching. Ithaka S+R provided guided interview questions, and librarians at PSU conducted interviews with departmental faculty. Local interview responses were compared to the interviews from the other 23 institutions.

 

Results - PSU Library had a higher rate of faculty satisfaction than in the larger survey. Discussions raised concerns around accessibility of content, which was novel to PSU, and did not meaningfully emerge in the broader study. Local findings did line up with broader trends in the form of concerns about cost, discoverability, and lack of diverse content. 

 

Conclusions - The data collected by Ithaka S+R’s survey, which was the first part of their two-part study, is useful as it highlights the trends and attitudes of the greater academic library community. However, the second portion of the study’s guided interviews with campus faculty reinforced the importance of accessibility, the Library’s provision of resources, and the relationships between subject liaisons and departmental instructors. It emphasized that Portland State University’s Library has built a good foundation with faculty related to this area but has not been able to provide for every streaming instructional need. Reasons for this include limited acquisitions budgets, constraints of staff time, and market factors.

 

 

Introduction

 

In 2021 and 2022, two librarians from Portland State’s University’s Millar Library participated in a study facilitated by Ithaka S+R “Making Streaming Media Sustainable for Academic Libraries” to identify emerging streaming media trends and needs on academic campuses. Portland State University (PSU) is a public urban university in Oregon, with approximately 23,000 enrolled students, and is an R2 Doctoral University with 201 degree programs. PSU employs 1,690 research and instructional faculty (Portland State University, 2022). Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping academic and cultural communities navigate issues in higher education. Their research projects are designed to “generate action-oriented research for institutional decision-making and act as a hub to promote and guide collaboration across the communities we serve” (Ithaka S+R, 2022).

 

Ithaka S+R’s project consisted of two phases focused on making streaming media more sustainable for academic libraries. The first phase was a U.S. and Canada-wide survey sent to 1,493 individuals by invitation from Ithaka S+R. This survey assessed and evaluated the competitive landscape of streaming media licensing for libraries. The results of that survey were shared with the investigators from the 24 participating libraries at the cohort-wide meeting in Fall 2021, and then published widely (Cooper et al., 2022). 

 

Phase two of the research project was a series of interviews conducted by librarians from the 24 college campuses. This article focuses on interview findings from Portland State University’s faculty. Two investigators from PSU’s Millar Library conducted 10 interviews with faculty in the Film Studies and Social Work departments in the Winter/Spring of 2022.

 

Ithaka S+R’s collaborative research project was an opportunity to survey faculty at PSU about streaming media preferences in instruction to better understand how the Library was meeting service and support needs. In turn, PSU also contributed to developing strategies for libraries as they continue to navigate the complex landscape of streaming media in higher education. Broadly, the survey reinforced the preliminary assumption that streaming media is increasingly important in academic library collections, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey feedback also revealed how faculty across different institutions incorporated streaming media into instruction. Reviewing PSU faculty’s interviews provided the Library with information regarding how to tailor outreach and other services to better assist faculty and students accessing streaming media in their courses.

 

PSU’s Library was awarded the ReImagine PSU Grant to participate in the Ithaka S+R project. The grant emerged as an effort to transform campus services to better serve students during a time of pandemic transition. Streaming services in instruction and access during the pandemic continues to be an equity issue, as many students do not have reliable high-speed internet or the devices required to access content in this way. Learning more about the needs of our faculty and students will inform the Library on how to better meet those challenges.

 

Literature Review

 

Streaming media usage has risen on campuses nationwide, as documented in recent library literature and demonstrated on PSU’s campus (Wang & Loftis, 2020). More recently, according to a survey by Tanasse (2021), 96.7% of responding libraries offer streaming media. Academic libraries grew accustomed to incorporating streaming films into their selection, acquisition, cataloging, and budgetary workflows for several years, albeit with variations in a climate of consistent change.

 

During the public health crisis of COVID-19, many libraries restricted access to physical collections and universities rapidly shifted toward remote learning where possible (Grove, 2021). This exacerbated the already growing demand for the streaming format that outpaced library acquisitions budgets (Lear, 2022). Regardless of whether libraries can afford continued subscription and license renewals indefinitely, it became clear that a “preference” for streaming media has evolved into “necessity,” based on trends in media consumption (Lear, 2022), as well as instructors’ pedagogical aims and instructional realities. In addition to the growth of online courses, reasons for the new dominance of streaming include use of film to accommodate multiple learning styles, instructors adopting “flipped classroom models,” and physical media players becoming increasingly obsolete (Adams & Holland, 2017).

 

In addition to budgetary hardships and workflow complications for libraries, students experience a variety of difficulties with accessing and utilizing streaming media. COVID-19 further underscored the problems of the digital divide in the United States, which is particularly significant for rural residents who struggle with readily available speedy internet service that can keep pace with these resources (Lai & Widmar, 2020). Other variables for student access depend upon video quality, presence or absence of subtitles, closed captions, or audio description (Peacock & Vecchione, 2019).

 

In addition to addressing the digital divide exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, librarians and faculty members recognize the importance of developing and expanding their accessibility standards for streaming media collections. Some libraries have begun to adopt policies of Universal Design for Learning to increase digital equity and inclusion in collection access. This ranges from lending Wi-Fi hotspots, expanding library remote services, and most importantly, purchasing library materials that are accessible for all users (Frank et al., 2021). While there are outlined recommendations for these practices from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), there are few recommendations for streaming media specifically beyond encouraging libraries to ensure streaming titles are closed captioned and offer transcripts. A last recommendation is relying on campus/institution accessibility services to help caption and make other media accessible when licensed content does not include closed captions or transcripts (Frank et al., 2021). 

 

It can be challenging to procure films that have accessibility features if they are not available on the market. The authors otherwise found a paucity of studies regarding specific streaming accessibility best practices, a gap which should be further explored in library literature.

 

In addition to exploring more specific accessibility needs for streaming media, libraries also noted the importance of surveying their faculty and students when making streaming media collection decisions. There have been several focus group research studies in recent years to assess and inform librarians making streaming media collection decisions such as developing collection decision workflows (VanUllen et al., 2018) and usability preferences (Hill & Ingram-Monteiro, 2021). Once assessed, libraries strive to make collection decisions that inform their unique user populations and preferences for streaming media and share these focus group/survey models for future research. In a study by Beisler et al. (2019) it is evident that students express a need for “streaming content that was credible and appropriate for academic purposes,” while faculty generally are concerned with content being discoverable, and reliable. While strides towards best practices have been made for accessibility, there are still gaps in universal best practices to collect this format. In the meantime, libraries must create boutique policies and approaches to try to satisfy the needs of their unique user populations. 

 

In 2021, Ithaka S+R launched a survey of academic libraries and released its report in June of 2022, which reinforced the importance of streaming media in library collections. A total of 96% of librarians surveyed said the “impact on instruction is the number one factor shaping library decision making in purchasing and renewing streaming licenses” above even cost considerations. Another notable finding from the survey is that academic institutions were already heading this direction before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the immediate need for streaming media (Cooper et al., 2022). The study goes on to reveal that nearly half of the librarians surveyed (42%) strongly agree that demand for streaming media has increased since March of 2020, yet only 23% of librarians at doctoral institutions strongly agree that their library’s strategy around streaming media licensing has changed (2022). In summary, while costs and demand rise, the collective profession has not made a meaningful response in terms of reimagining how we select and acquire this format.

 

Methodology

 

Prior to conducting the interviews with faculty, both investigators participated in two training sessions with staff from Ithaka S+R and the other project participants. The training consisted of sharing the interview materials such as the script (Appendix A) with questions and tips on how to conduct a research interview, and built-in time to practice with other participants. The investigators submitted paperwork for IRB approval for participation in the project and were granted Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) Exemption prior to the faculty interviews.

 

The investigators chose to select faculty from Film Studies and Social Work departments due to their consistent need for streaming services in their instruction. A total of 10 faculty participants were recruited, five from each department. An initial call for volunteers was sent to the departments via email, and the librarians selected faculty that they knew were frequent requestors for media content. Of the faculty approached, there was a 90% acceptance rate to participate in the interviews. Of these, 50% had indefinite tenure at the institution, while the remaining participants were either at the rank of assistant professor, adjunct faculty, or at the rank of instructor. The anonymity of the conversations enabled the faculty to be candid in their remarks, and the researchers believe that this is why adjunct faculty did not appreciably respond much differently than full professors, for example. Future studies should include other disciplines, but the librarians felt that Social Work and Film Studies were excellent choices due to their high use of streaming content, and their similarities and differences incorporating streaming media into their instruction. 

 

Each interview was conducted and recorded over Zoom with auto transcription enabled to provide a starting point for packaging the final transcript sent to Ithaka S+R in the Spring of 2022 for analysis and inclusion in their final report. Investigators reviewed the auto-generated transcript to make any necessary corrections, and de-identified the faculty to ensure anonymity in the broader study. Researchers at Ithaka S+R did the final coding and analysis as they compiled interviews from all 24 participating academic institutions (MacDougall & Ruediger, 2023). 

 

PSU’s interviews were reviewed by the librarians and put into a spreadsheet for general comparative analysis (Appendix B). This provided faculty reactions at a glance, which enabled easier comparison between PSU’s experience and the findings from the larger collected survey, which included 244 total interviews from faculty in a wide range of disciplines.

 

Results

 

The interviews illustrate how PSU’s faculty view and utilize streaming media and library services in their teaching practice. Faculty were able to express their frustration and satisfaction with the current model of streaming services at Millar Library. Some feedback varied between disciplines, and yet there were also commonalities across both Social Work and Film Departments.

 

Social Work faculty utilized streaming media in their instruction as supplemental material, a practical demonstration tool for concepts introduced in their courses, and as instruction materials for clinical practice courses. Film faculty utilize streaming content as their base text for analysis and demonstrate properly executed technical production skills. Faculty in both disciplines taught in different environments: online, hybrid, and in person.

 

The themes from the Portland State University interviews are discussed below and are separated into the following sections: Accessibility Challenges, Discovery, and Cost Containment. The valuable insight they offered also underscores the importance of faculty/librarian relationships, which was also spoken about in many interviews. 

 

Accessibility Challenges

 

One of the most surprising insights offered during the faculty interviews was a heightened awareness of student accessibility. This concern was more pronounced among the PSU faculty in comparison with the broader national study from other participating institutions, where these concerns were not meaningfully explored. Accessibility is often conflated with discoverability and whether a film ‘can be accessed’, not specific concerns around usability. While generally satisfied with captioning services, faculty are interested in reimagining the current model of captioning services within the Disability Resources Center (DRC) department at PSU. Faculty want captioning as a basic feature of streaming media content and not only for students who have formal disability accommodations. Many students who do not formally meet the requirements for submitting accessibility requests still benefit from captions due to a variety of different learning styles.  As one faculty member expressed: “I think it addresses a lot of learning styles when you have captioning and it shouldn’t be where we have to have a person that has to get an accommodation that you know, maybe 50% of a class would benefit from, but they don’t have accommodations. It's just that it works better to have the audio and the captioning at the same time.” Faculty expressed how using streaming services helped to support different learning styles and increased focus on accessibility challenges would naturally follow suit. The Library has built this concern into all of its purchasing, but gaps occur when faculty use streaming media that is not licensed by the Library.

 

Some faculty caption media themselves because they cannot rely on the auto captioning offered by some platforms. This includes media clips created by faculty members themselves to support instruction: One faculty member stated: “Sometimes it’ll take me like 45 minutes to make two small clips…so you finally have these two clips. It’s like 10 minutes of content you share and then you find out ‘oh this doesn’t need to be captioned because it’s a foreign film it’s subtitled’ and I’m like ‘Oh, but it's not like captioned-captioned.’” It is a time-intensive endeavor for faculty members already stretched thin with teaching and research.

 

Due to the number of streaming platforms, it is common to encounter a variety of delivery options. A film might be viewed on a vendor platform, emailed in the form of an mp4 file to host on the Library’s local platform, or mailed as a DVD that staff are to digitize. This can lead to complications in workflow for Acquisitions and Cataloging staff, but the important disparity is the lack of uniformity in accessibility options. 

 

Some vendors consistently offer closed captioning and transcripts with their films. Some vendors supply the Library with different versions of the film with audio descriptions for visually impaired viewers, but this is rare. Non-English dialog is sometimes subtitled, but not always, and the variety of available languages of subtitle options is limited. The Library is often limited by what is available since any given film is commonly only available for institutional purchase by one vendor. As noted by Beisler et al. (2019), captions are a great pedagogical value to faculty for these reasons, as well as supplementing poor audio quality, and for students who might be viewing films in loud environments. 

 

Ultimately, when discussing whether a streaming film is ‘accessible’ the conversation is normally about whether closed captions are provided. This overlooks audio description services that assist learners with visual impairments, which is a rarity on the market, and therefore not often library provided. Another aspect of accessibility is whether transcripts are provided, which again varies by vendor. Also of concern is the relative accessibility of the hosting site where viewers may be searching for and accessing films, libraries should ensure that they are user friendly, able to be read by a screen reader, and so forth. 

 

The fact that the Library is sometimes pressed to refer students and researchers to outside streaming services (commercial, open web) means that it is not always able to assess or control the accessibility standards of the content students consume. The Library only controls its own provisions, in compliance with the University’s Standard for Accessible Digital Procurement, (Portland State University, 2023), ensuring acceptable accessibility levels. Ultimately, the Library’s ability to provide quality resources that are accessible and desirable to faculty and students hinges on whether our community is indeed utilizing Library resources. When instructors and students are compelled to use sources not provided by the Library, important considerations such as these can potentially be unaddressed. 

 

Discovery

 

PSU faculty’s interview responses echoed that of faculty at the other 23 institutions represented in the Ithaka S+R study. Issues around discoverability were raised, as busy faculty often use the open web to find films before going to the Library catalog or databases. The findings from Ithaka suggest that YouTube is the most common source of streaming films utilized by faculty. PSU’s faculty disputed this to some extent, with 50% of surveyed faculty naming YouTube or Google specifically when asked where they search for content, whereas 80% cited the Library’s catalog or subscription databases. 

 

Many faculty in the national study described library catalogs and databases as “confusing”, “unreliable”, and “impossible to navigate”. The Ithaka report conveys “Personal connections with librarians were fundamental to faculty satisfaction with library resources” (MacDougall & Ruediger, 2023). This was also the case with PSU’s faculty, who consulted a combination of subject librarian, the catalog, and alternative discovery routes to locate resources and help facilitate access for their students. Throughout all interviews, the subject librarian played a crucial role in helping navigate streaming media access and discovery. On PSU’s campus, a study by Wang and Loftis (2020) was conducted to determine how streaming media was discovered, and the results reinforce the validity of that perception; faculty use the catalog, but also search other vendor platforms, finding those discovery systems more intuitive. In support of this, Beisler et al. (2019), state in their study that “Faculty expressed very clearly that having content available is not enough; streaming video must be easy to find and use and be reliable, or the content will not be used”. 

 

Cost Containment 

 

Ithaka’s study revealed that keeping costs low for students is a major priority for instructors. Local interviews also reinforced this, with 60% of interviewees responding that students should not have to pay additional rental fees or individual subscriptions for streaming films in courses. 40% of the faculty stated that they would reluctantly require students to pay for content, but none were pleased by the prospect. The interviewees who suggested that they would require students to pay out of pocket for film rentals indicated a ceiling of around $5 to $10 as the limit they would expect to burden students. Keeping costs low for the Library and individual students was understood as a necessity. This is reinforced in Dotson and Olivera’s 2020 case study about the affordability of course materials in general, and how faculty often try to mitigate students’ burdensome costs by increasingly using non-textual resources such as streaming media and Open Educational Resources. 

 

Streaming media budgets have been a consistent concern on PSU’s campus for several years as rising demand quickly outpaced the ability to contain costs. Strategies ranged from using Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) models, exploring options via a consortia subscription, and requesting individual titles from filmmakers, for example. Despite the various methods of streaming acquisition types available, a unified, cost-conscious strategy for the Library is strongly desired and would benefit students and faculty.

 

Local Needs and Strategies

 

Information about streaming media appears in Portland State University Library General Collection Guidebook, which acts as the Library’s outward-facing collection development policy (Emery & Loftis, 2020). The Acquisitions Librarian created a companion Library Guide dedicated to using films in courses, with information about the Library’s decision-making process in licensing among other topics such as copyright, public performance rights, and other relevant information. It also outlines current criteria for purchasing single streaming licenses.

 

The interviews revealed that faculty have questions about how streaming media is paid for and understand that it is expensive to supply and sustain. Funding is not always the key issue, however. In the case of some feature films, historical films, and foreign language content, institutional licensing is not always available to libraries, and what is available in collections that the Library subscribes to is not always satisfactory. The Library purchases educational streaming licenses for popular feature films when affordable and available. However, some content is simply not possible to license. These difficulties are captured in an article by Lear (2022 p. 7) which discusses barriers in filling streaming requests: “because vendors did not have streaming rights in order to provide a license, or the distributor of the video did not provide institutional streaming licenses. And, of course, requests from streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu had a 0.0% success rate”. Similar frustrations are felt in the PSU Library, where barriers such as these are encountered with requested titles, with a similarly dismal success rate for television series. In summary, there are varying levels of availability depending on the titles being sought.

 

Conclusion

 

The results of the local faculty interviews were analogous to key findings in the broader survey, notably: how streaming is increasingly being used in instruction, keeping costs down for students as a high priority, and that this media is being accessed both from within the library and on commercial platforms in a patchwork. 

 

That PSU faculty were aware of and concerned about accessibility issues puts them ahead of the national trend in considering these issues as central. The Library will play a role in advocacy in this area as we demand improvements from our vendors in this realm.

 

Portland State University both reinforced and slightly diverged from the collected findings in that Millar Library has generated positive feedback in its ability to communicate and liaise with departmental faculty. The broader survey likewise found that faculty were happy with librarians and library services, however they indicated some general dissatisfaction with library subscriptions and ability to deliver content. The faculty answered a question that is crucial to the Library, which is “to what extent are your current needs for incorporating video content in your courses being adequately met?” Each PSU interviewee answered that, to some degree, they felt well-supported. They each identified some frustrations, certainly, mostly due to availability of certain titles, and the ephemeral nature of many licenses, but it was largely positive and indicated goodwill towards the library staff and the Library in general. 

 

In the interviews, faculty were asked “what kinds of resources or other support would help you identify and assess opportunities for including video content in your classes?” The answers to this varied again by department. Film studies faculty, nearly unanimously, answered that they would like to know more about the Library budget, and what it could specifically support. Social Work faculty, on the other hand, were far more interested in learning about the Library’s existing resources and how best to discover and utilize them. Faculty from Social Work suggested workshops for faculty to learn where best to find resources, and they asked for more support from instructional designers with experience in online learning. Social Work faculty also discussed the locally created content that they or their students produced, either with lecture-capture or social media clips, and wondered how those types of streaming items could be housed and disseminated.

Ultimately, Portland State University’s Library built a good foundation with faculty related to its provision of streaming media, but more outreach can be done to offer support. Some factors are simply out of the Library’s control, such as limited acquisitions budgets, constraints of staff time, and market factors that render some content difficult to find and license.

 

Streaming media is ubiquitous on Portland State University’s campus just as it is on campuses across the globe. Libraries must understand their faculty’s use, priorities, and barriers to making effective use of this technology. As a trusted provider of streaming media to faculty and students, a library ensures its relevance and stays true to its mission. If faculty are not adequately provided for in this area, they are obliged to seek content elsewhere, and this throws into question the quality, cost, copyright compliance, and accessibility of the materials they use in class.

 

Author Contributions

 

Elsa Loftis and Carly Lamphere were equally responsible for Investigation, Data curation, Writing—Original draft, Writing—Review & editing

 

References

 

Adams, T. M., & Holland, C. C. (2018). Streaming media in an uncertain legal environment: A model policy and best practices for academic libraries. Journal of Copyright in Education & Librarianship, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v1i2.6550

 

Beisler, A., Bucy, R., & Medaille, A. (2019). Streaming video database features: What do faculty and students really want? Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 31(1), 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2018.1562602

 

Cooper, D. M., Ruediger, D., & Skinner, M. (2022, June 9). Streaming media licensing and purchasing practices at academic libraries: Survey results. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.316793

 

Dixon, J. A. (2017, September 7). The Academic Mainstream | Streaming Video. Library Journal. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/academic-mainstream-streaming-video

 

Dotson, D. S., & Olivera, A. (2020). Affordability of course materials: Reactive and proactive measures at The Ohio State University Libraries. Journal of Access Services, 17(3), 144–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/15367967.2020.1755674

 

Emery, J., & Loftis, E. (2020). Portland State University Library General Collections Guidebook. https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/librarycollectionsguide/

 

farrelly, d (2016). Digital Video - Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily wading into the stream. Information Today, Inc. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/nov16/farrelly--Digital-Video--Merrily-Merrily,-Merrily-Merrily-Wading-Into-the-Stream.shtml

 

farrelly, d., & Hutchison, J. (2014). ATG special report: Academic library streaming video: Key findings from the national survey. Against the Grain, 26(5). https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6852

 

Grove, T. M. (2021). Academic library video services: Charting a post-COVID course. Pennsylvania Libraries, 9(2). 101–110. https://doi.org/10.5195/palrap.2021.262

 

Hill, K., & Ingram-Monteiro, N. (2021). What patrons really want (in their streaming media): Using focus groups to better understand emerging collections use. The Serials Librarian, 80(1–4), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2021.1873701

 

Ithaka S+R. (2023). About. https://sr.ithaka.org/about/

 

Keenan, T. M. (2018). Collaborating to improve access of video for all. Reference Services Review, 46(3), 414–424. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2018-0028

 

Lai, J., & Widmar, N. O. (2021). Revisiting the digital divide in the COVID ‐19 era. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(1), 458–464. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13104

 

Lear, C. (2022). Controlled digital lending of video resources: Ensuring the provision of streaming access to videos for pedagogical purposes in academic libraries. Journal of Copyright in Education and Librarianship, 5(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v5i1.14807

 

Loftis, E. (n.d.). Streaming Media Overview. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/librarycollectionsguide/chapter/streaming-media-overview/

 

Loftis, E., & Keyes, J. (2019). Navigating the Sustainable Stream. Timberline Acquisitions Institute, Mt. Hood, OR, United States.

 

MacDougall, R., & Ruediger, D. (2023). Teaching with Streaming Video: Understanding Instructional Practices, Challenges, and Support Needs. Ithaka S+R. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.318216

 

Peacock, R., & Vecchione, A. (2020). Accessibility best practices, procedures, and policies in Northwest United States academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(1), 102095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102095

 

Portland State University. (2022). Facts: PSU By the Numbers. Portland State University. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.pdx.edu/portland-state-university-facts

 

Portland State University. (2023). Standard for Accessible Digital Procurement. Portland State University. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.pdx.edu/technology/standard-accessible-digital-procurement

 

Rapold, N. (2014, February 14). Even good films may go to purgatory. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/movies/old-films-fall-into-public-domain-under-copyright-law.html

 

Rodgers, W. (2018). Buy, borrow, or steal? Film access for film studies students. College & Research Libraries, 79(4). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.4.568

 

Tanasse, G. (2021). Choice White Paper: Implementing and Managing Streaming Media Services in Academic Libraries. Choice360. http://choice360.org/ librarianship/whitepaper

VanUllen, M.K., Mock, E., & Rogers, E. (2018). Streaming video at the University at Albany Libraries. Collection and Curation, 37(1), 26–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-01-2018-004

 

Wang, J., & Loftis, E. (2020). The library has infinite streaming content, but are users infinitely content? The library catalog vs. vendor platform discovery. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 32(2), 71–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2020.1739818

 

Whitten, S. (2019). The death of the DVD: Why sales dropped more than 86% in 13 years. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/the-death-of-the-dvd-why-sales-dropped-more-than-86percent-in-13-years.html

 

Appendix A

Semi-Structured Interview Guide

 

Streaming Project

 

Semi-Structured Interview Guide

 

Introduction

 

The ways that instructors can work with video content is evolving rapidly with the ascendancy of streaming platforms, including those the library licenses or are made freely available, over older formats like VHS and DVD. Within this context, the library is conducting a study to understand the possibilities for fostering instructional use of video content at our university. I’d like to ask you questions about your current use, preferences, and future plans for incorporating video content in your teaching, and perspectives on the role that the library can play towards that.

 

Before we begin, I’d also like to acknowledge that the landscape of available video content for educational use can be incredibly complicated, especially in terms of copyright terms and pricing models. Those complexities are not the focus of our conversation, but of course they cannot be divorced from how we can use video content in our teaching. As we go please feel free to request we pause at any point if you’d like further explanation or clarification about video content in the context of the broader educational media landscape or any other aspect of our discussion.

 

Current Practices

 

I’d like to begin by exploring how you teach with video content, including VHS, DVD, and the content provided through streaming platforms.

 

  1. Do you currently use any video content in your classes?

»       If yes, Briefly walk me through what kinds of content you are using, and in what format/platform and length?

        For which classes do you use this content in?

        How does the content contribute to the pedagogical goals of the class?

»       If no, why is that? [and if they have never used video content in their classes, skip to question 3]

 

  1. How do you determine which video content you use in your classes?

»       At what point in developing a course do you identify opportunities to include this content? Do you typically have very specific titles in mind?

»       Where do you typically look for content?

»       To what extent do delivery affordances determine whether you incorporate a specific video offering into your course? (e.g., delivery platform, accessibility options)

»       Do you consult with any other people to identify opportunities to incorporate video content into your class offerings?

 

  1. To what extent are your current needs for incorporating video content into your courses being adequately met?

»       Has the pandemic changed your needs for incorporating video content into your courses in any way?

»       Are there any recent examples where you encountered barriers to incorporating specific content into your class? [e.g., unavailability of specific titles, copyright complexities]

»       If yes, What were the barriers, and how did you work around them?

        Did you work with any others to mitigate those barriers?

        Is there anything else that could have been done to alleviate these challenges?

 

Evolving Expectations

 

Next, I’d like to learn more about how your expectations are evolving around how video content can be incorporated in your classes.

 

  1. Has the availability of streaming content changed how you integrate video content into your teaching?

»       What do you see as the greatest affordances of streaming content for your teaching?

»       Are they any downsides to incorporating streaming content into your teaching?

»       Is there anything that could be improved about streaming content offerings and/or functionalities to maximize the opportunities to incorporate it into your teaching?

 

  1. Has the availability of streaming content changed your expectations about how the costs of the video content should be covered?

»       Are there any instances where it is acceptable to require students to pay directly to access video content for educational purposes?

»       How do your expectations with video relate to your expectations for how other forms of course content are paid for? E.g., textbooks, journal articles.

»       What are the top factors that you think are important for determining the extent to which the university covers the costs of video content? Which part(s) of the university should cover those costs?

 

  1. What kinds of resources or other supports would help you identify and assess opportunities for including video content into your classes?

»       Would additional information about pricing structures, available titles, or format types affect your decision-making about what content to assign?

»       Ideally, how would you like to get this information and from whom?

 

Wrapping Up

 

I’d like to finish up with a few questions that put your perspectives into the broader context of your field and look towards future developments and needs.

 

  1. How does your use of video content in your teaching compare to the practices of your peers?

»       Are there any kinds of video content or functionality that you would like to see more of?

»       Are there any developments in the areas that you teach that may affect how you or your peers would like to teach with video content in the next five years?

  1. Is there anything else that is important for me to know about how you or your peers incorporate video content into teaching?

 

Appendix B

Interview Results

 

Blue indicates Film Studies Faculty and Orange is Social Work Faculty

 

List of questions that faculty were asked and their responses.

List of questions that faculty were asked and their responses.