Beginning in summer 2020, all Kanopy film titles will require a faculty request for access and approval by W&M Libraries. Once approved, the film will be available for viewing to everyone in the W&M community.
In order to support teaching, learning, and research, W&M Libraries subscribes to a number of streaming video databases. Unlike most databases, which provide a corpus of films for a relatively predictable annual subscription fee, Kanopy charges $150-$250 per film for a one-year license. Therefore, if a faculty member used a film for Fall 2019 and wants to use it for the coming fall, the Libraries must pay for the license again. Due to this, costs can mount rapidly, and quickly become unsustainable, especially as library budgets have remained flat, and are now facing potential cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kanopy film titles and categories remain searchable. A request form appears with each film title to which we do not have a current license. Film requests must be made by W&M faculty and tied to course instruction. Other requests will not be approved.
Films must be requested two weeks prior to the time of instruction in order for W&M Libraries and Kanopy to process the request. Requests placed on weekends will be processed the following week.
Faculty can contact their liaison librarian for assistance in finding videos for their courses.
