Due to unsustainable rising costs, Brock University Library will be switching our access model for Kanopy streaming video service to mediated mode beginning on September 8.
Until now, Kanopy has been in “Patron Driven Acquisition” mode. In this model, the entire Kanopy catalogue was open, but after a certain amount of viewing of a title, a 1-year lease of the film costing $150 was automatically triggered for the library.
Kanopy costs have grown steadily over the years, but have increased dramatically since March 2020, finally leading us to make the difficult decision to mediate access.
What does mediated access mean for you?
- Beginning on September 8, only titles the library has licensed in Kanopy will be openly available—of which there are over 400! You can see a list of currently licensed films and their expiry dates here.
- We will continue to license Kanopy films by request for course instruction and focused research. After September 8, requests can be submitted directly through the film’s page in Kanopy.
Good news! We still have access to thousands more films:
The library subscribes to several other film collections, covering a breadth of content including popular movies, Canadian documentaries, and theatre productions. A full list can be found on our new Streaming Video page.
Brand new in August 2020, the library has added Audio Cine Films to these collections, which includes films from studios like DreamWorks Animation, Pixar Animated Studios, Walt Disney, and more.
Our sincere thanks for your understanding as we make this change
We understand how popular streaming video has become, and how valuable it is as a learning resource, particularly in our challenging COVID-19 circumstances. We regret having to make this change. However, Patron Driven Acquisition and its growing costs are not sustainable. Mediating access will allow us to sustain our budget, and ensure we continue to have the capacity to lease Kanopy and other streaming video titles for purposes that need them most: course instruction and focused research.