Background: Media Lending

"The impact on instruction is the top factor driving academic library decision-making related to purchasing and renewing streaming licenses."

- Ithaka S+R Report, 2022 

The increasingly digital nature of scholarship has presented a number of opportunities and challenges as research outputs move beyond traditional formats of articles and monographs. In this shift of format diversification, streaming media resources have grown increasingly central to reaching curricular objectives and impacting library budgets. Whereas approaches to lending digital books and monographs may be used to support a number of use cases and contexts (general circulation, course reserves, and interlibrary loan), the “impact on instruction is the number one factor shaping academic library decision-making in purchasing and renewing streaming licenses” according to a 2022 report by Ithaka S+R. 

This more targeted use case has made the opportunities for cross-institutional lending of streaming media more challenging for libraries to realize as:

• Licenses for streaming media rarely provide explicit provisions allowing for interlibrary loaning
• Their diverse formats are not supported by legacy resource sharing systems, making the scalability of sharing these resources more difficult to achieve. 
• Streaming services often require authentication through local university or library systems, making it difficult or impossible to grant temporary access to users from another institution.
• A number of laws in the United States impact their ability to be shared as their usage must navigate a number of nuances surrounding synchronous and asynchronous educational delivery methods. 

The resources below provide an introductory overview of the current practices and challenges facing libraries, predominantly academic, in their evolving development of streaming media collections: 

▶️ From Owning to Streaming: The Transition to Digital Media in Education, Library Futures & Internet Archive - 2022 

• A discussion about the challenges facing the library profession given the increase of streaming media from legacy collection development of physical media. It explores the challenges of licensing streaming media, impacts on the educational landscape, and the complexity of the digital media ecosystem given the touch points and stakeholders for this type of content (creators, film studios, distributors, libraries, users, etc.).

🌐 📜 Streaming Media Licensing and Purchasing Practices at Academic Libraries, Ithaka S+R - 2022

• A research report detailing the evolution of streaming media acquisitions and access, as well as localized digitization practices of VHS tapes and DVDs. The report provides a number of insights on academic library trends including the importance of instruction on licensing streaming media, the lack of strategic change for streaming media acquisitions in the growth of institutional demand, and the impacts on budgets to build more robust footprints for streaming media in library collections. 

▶️ Teaching with Streaming Video: Understanding Instructional Practices, Challenges, and Support Needs, Proquest, ACRL, & Ithaka S+R - 2023

• A webinar discussing the Teaching with Streaming Video research project from Ithaka S+R. It highlights the primary reasons for using streaming media in course instruction, searching and discovery practices for streaming media, and perceived gaps and challenges in utilizing these digital resources to support instruction. 

📜 Copyright and Streaming Audiovisual Content in the US Context, ASRL & Ithaka S+R - 2023

• An issue brief discussing the collection development and legal challenges underlying the trend of shifting from physical to streaming media and the applicable U.S. laws as they relate to these resources, including the U.S. Copyright Act, Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act, Fair Use, and exemptions around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). 

▶️ A Conversation on Streaming Video Acquisition: Post-Pandemic Acquisition Processes and Sustainability of License Models in Academic Libraries, Charleston Hub - 2021

• A webinar exploring two universities’ approaches to acquiring streaming media, including their navigation and management of user expectations, funding strategies, and considerations for continued sustainability of acquiring streaming media content. 

📜 Evaluation of Streaming Video Usage in a University Library Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown, written by Marianne Foley - 2023

• An institutional perspective on the growing demand for streaming media prior to and through the COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting impact on collection development strategies and budgeting to support the growing need for these digital resources. 

📜 Red Tape on Video Tape: Legal Issues in the Preservation of VHS Collections, Cyberlaw Clinic @ Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society - 2021

• This informational white paper from the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School discusses digitization of VHS collections, exploring how to navigate fair use and copyright law in the desire to preserve and provide access to media resources in alternative formats.