In less than ten years, the availability of digitally converted or born-digital media, especially video, has grown exponentially. Libraries and librarians are constantly navigating, and helping their patrons navigate, this digital shift. Online and streaming video has saturated the consumer market for popular television shows and movies, and the market is fragmented. My first full-time job was as a video store clerk. I had those shelves memorized, and I can remember when DVDs were introduced to reluctant patrons and staff. I still haven’t been able to part with the impressive VHS collection I acquired during that job! Now I find I am still drawn to visual formats, but instead of memorizing shelves, I am constantly on the lookout for online video resources that can benefit my patrons or colleagues. Collecting and accessing videos and media has always been complicated for librarians—fair use limitations and allowances, individual versus institutional rights, closed-circuit rights, public performance rights, streaming rights, and other questions of licensing, copyright, and access, make this area murky. Navigating the availability of titles and needed formats is also complicated. This report will cover many video resources, available for free and for fee, that are ideal for use in library instruction, research education and outreach, curriculum, and embedding into content and learning management systems.

The scope of this report will be mostly consumption: searching for, viewing, sharing, and embedding online video in teaching, learning, and research.

To start, let’s think about how nontextual resources are being used in higher education. Ithaka’s S+R US Faculty Survey 2012 provides an overview of faculty research and teaching behaviors. In the report, video, film, and nontextual resources are at the same level of importance to faculty research as textual reference materials such as encyclopedias.¹ Video is a great supplemental resource for faculty, but it is also becoming more and more important in their primary scholarly research—especially as more and more special collections and archives digitize their audiovisual holdings.

In the survey, faculty members were asked how important film and video resources are to their scholarly research. Close to 40 percent of humanities faculty responded that these materials were very important; in social sciences, the response was less than 20 percent; and for the sciences, about 10 percent considered these materials very important.²

In terms of teaching, faculty members use video and film for both lower- and upper-level undergraduate assignments. When asked about the types of materials used in their assignments for lower- and upper-level undergraduates, the disciplines varied again. Film, video, artwork, and other nontextual sources were used often or occasionally with lower-level undergraduates by close to 85 percent of humanities faculty; in the social sciences, about 70 percent; and in the sciences, about 35 percent.³ For upper-level undergraduate assignments, humanities led with a little over 80 percent using nontextual sources often or occasionally; social sciences, about 58 percent; and sciences, about 30 percent.⁴

In terms of the higher education community, the need for and use of the material vary depending on how faculty will be using them—for their own scholarship, or for the teaching, learning, and research of different communities.

The Online Video 2013 summary of findings from Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project reported that the percentage of American adults who were Internet users who watch or download videos had grown from 69 percent in 2009 to 78 percent in 2013.⁵ Video-sharing sites like YouTube have been the main driving force in the increasing percentage of online adults that post, watch, or download videos. Since 2006, the percentage has grown from 33 percent to the current figure of 71 percent.⁶ Among online adults, rates of online video viewing are highest among users ages 18–49 and those with higher and household income levels.⁷

According to the July 2012 edition of Library Journal’s “Patron Profiles: Media Consumption and Library Use,” DVD borrowing in public libraries has fallen sharply: 17 percent of respondents to the 2012 survey said that streaming services—from providers such as Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and Amazon—were their primary source for movies.⁸

Both the K–12 and the Higher Education editions of the New Media Consortium’s 2012 Horizon Report confirm that the role of online or blended learning continues to increase and come of age.⁹ The use of video no longer stands out for distance and traditional learners. It is expected to be integrated into the curriculum—lectures, primary content, methods of analysis, and instruction are in nontextual formats. The “flipped” classroom, which uses video lecture and materials outside of class so that class time can be spent on active projects and engagement, is a popular model for student learning.

Film and video have long been research and teaching tools. The journal Media & Values began in 1977 and was one of the first journals dedicated to the analysis of media materials and the teaching of media literacy.¹⁰ Media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages.”¹¹ For the purpose of this report, I am going to use the term metaliteracy. In summary, that only scratches the surface. The ACRL is currently revising its standards on information literacy to include nontextual objects and formats and to incorporate the language and purpose of other core literacies, such as digital, media, visual literacies, etc.—metaliteracy. In their 2011 paper “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy,” Jacobson and Mackey define metaliteracy as “an overarching and self-referential framework that integrates emerging technologies and unifies multiple literacy types. This redefinition . . . places a particular emphasis on producing and sharing information in participatory digital environments.”¹²

The coauthor of that paper, Trudi Jacobson, is also cochair of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force. In 2012, the task force submitted recommendations to the ACRL Information Literacy Standards Committee to continue the work of revising and evaluating the current ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The revised information literacy standards will recognize and incorporate information literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, digital literacy, etc., as an overall, overarching metaliteracy framework.¹³

The core argument is that all these literacies, as well as others, are important, but that the original standards of information literacy are still relevant as well. Metaliteracy is an intersection and framework where subject content, technology, format, text, nontext, and participatory culture are all incorporated to ensure competencies in our learners. For example, format knowledge is part of the metaliteracy scope. As stated in Jacobson and Mackey’s paper, knowledge of format is getting increasingly important for online users. It is especially important for online media and video users. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority provides lists of officially registered media types and subtypes. There are too many to mention here. Flash (.flv), MPEG-4 (.mp4), MPEG-3 (.mp3), and QuickTime (.mov) are a few well-known video and audio file formats. Knowledge of the formats and their limitations on platforms, browsers, and operating systems can be useful to the online video researcher.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority: Media Types: Video

www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml#video

Most video-hosting websites that allow uploaded content from users are protected by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA), a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Section 512.¹⁴ This provision is designed to shelter service providers from the infringing activities of their customers. The Internet service is required to delete any infringing content if notified and asked to do so by the copyright holder. It is important that researchers and instructors know that multimedia content can be fluid and is often not a permanent resource.

For aid in navigating copyright and fair use law, several sites can help. For example, the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University published a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. This document helps creators, distributors, and educators interpret the copyright guidelines surrounding fair use and online video content. It is just one of several documents CMSi has published on behalf of educators, librarians, and filmmakers.

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

www.cmsimpact.org/sites/default/files/online_best_practices_in_fair_use.pdf

Many of the born-digital or public domain content websites also adhere to Creative Commons licensing. CC is an important initiative in creating the balance between web technology, creation, licensing, and current copyright law. Its mission statement says, “Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.”¹⁵ The creators can choose a license that best suits their needs. CC gives creative owners control of how their content can be used in terms of commercial use, open access, limited use, etc.

Creative Commons also asks users to contribute to its content directories. These directories list organizations that provide services using Creative Commons licenses. For example, Flickr.com is a photo-sharing website that allows users to license their photos under Creative Commons licenses. Flickr hosts millions of CC-licensed photos on its site and allows users to limit their searches to images with Creative Commons licenses. Vimeo, a user-upload video service similar to YouTube, also encourages users to tag their created videos with creativecommons so the videos can be browsed and searched for easily.

Creative Commons Content Directories

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Directories

Vimeo: Videos Tagged “creativecommons”

http://vimeo.com/tag:creativecommons

Some of the websites and online collections mentioned in this work are proprietary, corporate, or commercial, while others are library, archives, museum, cultural, and educational initiatives from a wide range of institutions. It is important that librarians and educators recognize the differences, as most of these sites are free but can include advertisements, fees for subscription service, or “paywalls” for additional content. I will outline some of these details later in this report. Most of the resources outlined here are for personal, face-to-face, or distance learning use. As always, public performance rights for public screenings vary from resource to resource.

Whether you are using general search engines, site-specific search boxes, or a specialized video search engine, you should consider a variety of tactics and tips:

• Just as with searching for text, explore using a variety of search terms and synonyms. In fact, this strategy is even more important with video. And if you are uploading a video to a site for user-created content like YouTube or Vimeo, always use descriptive metadata and tags to ensure that other users can find the resources.
• Adding the terms video, multimedia, film, or movie can shape your keyword results as well.
• On all websites, look for advanced search and faceted interfaces, which will include additional fields to narrow or focus your search. Date, file or media formats, duration, author, and sources are often options and are especially helpful for video and audio resources.
• Each search engine is different, and many offer specific tips on searching for multimedia content. Check the Help or FAQ links for keyboard shortcuts and useful query formats.
• Don’t get settled on one search engine; try multiple engines. Google, Bing, Yahoo, or even lesser known search engines like Yippy can provide different top results to your keywords and lead you to alternate resources. There are many search engines, and using several can help expand your results list effortlessly.
• Most search engines provide options for a family filter or safe search to restrict adult content, but others do not. These options are often available in the Preferences or Settings menu of the search engine or can be moderated in advanced search portals or facets. Use of these options will depend on the situation: research, audience, and personal sensibilities.
• Creating accounts or profiles on search engines allows for greater user functionality in saving, searching, and setting preferences.
• A warning: the Internet is a moving target. Search functionality on sites can change, navigational tools can move around, and websites can disappear, as can content. Use a bookmarking system to save links. If you can’t find a previously accessed link or resource, try a Google search. Due to issues and activities surrounding rights management, such as expired licensing and copyright infringement, it is important to know that multimedia content can be fluid and is often not a permanent resource. Seek out permalinks and permaURLs whenever possible. If you have created and uploaded the video, capture it for future use.
• It is possible to capture streaming video, but before you copy, save, or distribute any content online, make sure you have the legal right to do so. Tools like KeepVid allow streaming videos to be downloaded in limited file formats, and YouTube provides instructions for owners and uploaders of YouTube content.
• To troubleshoot content, switching browser platforms or refreshing the page is an option if a video is not playing. Multimedia formats can have limitations based on operating systems, devices, and browsers. Again, Help, About, or FAQ pages are where technical support is primarily found.
• Permitting pop-up windows or allowing cookies on the Internet browser you are using (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.) can modify viewing issues. Each browser is different.
• Certain requirements can affect how well you can view or listen to content on your computer, tablet, or mobile device. Operating systems, file formats, software requirements, browser limitations, and network issues can all affect the quality of the sound or image. An error message will most likely appear if there is an issue. If you are not sure how to proceed, a Google search on the error message can lead you to Help pages, user feedback, and solutions. For example, Windows format (.wmv) can be problematic on Apple products and the Flash format (.flv) doesn’t work on iPad OS, but some formats can be used across operating systems and browsers—MPEG-4, MPEG-3, and QuickTime (.mov) are just a few examples. Very often, plug-ins are available for limited browsers and platforms. When it is appropriate, opt for streaming over progressive download. Streaming requires less bandwidth.

KeepVid

http://keepvid.com

Download YouTube Videos Instructions

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/56100?hl=en&ref_topic=3031507