Video Content: Finding Video Content

This guide provides an overview of finding video content, such as films and documentaries, at Miami University.

This guide is divided into three main sections, accessible through the tabs on the left-hand side of the screen or the links below:

1.  Information for instructors seeking video content for their teaching.
2.  Information for students seeking video content.
3.  A section that provides a list of video databases that Miami subscribes to (as well as links to some free video resources). Note that all video content found in Miami's video databases can also be found using the Miami library catalog (see below for some tips on searching the catalog for video). Instructors have additional options for locating materials that the library can acquire for instructional use.

The Miami library catalog is the best place to start when searching for video at Miami. The catalog provides information about all videos currently accessible through the Miami Libraries, including both streaming video and video on physical media, such as DVDs. While Miami holds video in many formats and has access to many video databases, all videos purchased and currently available through the Miami Libraries can be found using the Miami library catalog. The Miami library catalog does not search free video, and does not provide search results from commercial website such as Youtube or Amazon.

The Miami University library catalog

Some videos leased by Miami have expiration dates. See the expandable sections below for information about searching for videos in the catalog, and checking for expiration dates on streaming video content.

Searches made from the Library's homepage, with the default "Books and More" tab selected will produce search results that include video content, such as film available on DVDs or video streams. Once you have searched using the "Books and More" tab, you can narrow your search results to video only by expanding the "Material Type" tab to the left of the screen, and checking the box for "Videos" (see below).

Because some video content is leased for fixed lengths of time (for example, videos leased from Kanopy are typically leased for one year), you may wish to use the library catalog to see whether a particular video has an expiration date. Some videos have been licensed to Miami in perpetuity and have no expiration date.

In the above example, you can see that the item's Notes field indicates that this video will expire on November 30, 2019. If the item record for a video does not have an expiration date in the notes field, this is likely because Miami had purchased this video permanently, or because Miami pays to renew this resource on a continuing basis.