Films on Demand replaces VHS and DVD

By Lacy Woods –

The Films On Demand database provides students and faculty with an alternative to VHS and DVD documentaries.

A newly available library database, Films on Demand, has educational and documentary-type videos on a wide variety of topics that can be used by professors and students as resources. The videos for the database come from places such as PBS, Biography, and The History Channel. If there are some videos that cannot be accessed through these channels, students may want to look into websites such as Avoidcensorship.org to see how they can be of help with this need.

The university has subscribed to the database of more than 10,000 videos. “It’s more cost effective because in order for us to purchase that amount of videos it would be incredibly expensive,” Jennifer Barrera, head of access services, said. “All of the videos have performance rights attached to them and if we were to buy one DVD that had performance rights it’d cost about $100 to $200,” she said.

The Films on Demand database also helps with library storage. “This is allowing us to have a wider variety of videos covering a great expanse of collections without the cost, or having to store them, or having to worry about damage to them,” Barrera said.

The videos are meant to aid college students with assignments such as research reports. Besides providing helpful information, the videos also have a citation feature. There is a wide range of categories and subjects to choose from giving the student a better chance to find what they are looking for.

Some professors are taking advantage of the new system and using it in some of their classes. “A lot of faculty members like to have video clips in their course content,” Barrera said.

Lacy Woods is an English major from Van Vleck, Texas.

Resources: Placebo Effects video on Films on Demand