Reserves and Textbooks: Streaming Video Reserves

Through the Miami University Libraries Streaming Video Reserve (SVR) service, audiovisual works can be made accessible to students and faculty for educational purposes in compliance with U.S. copyright law.

Best Practices for Copyright Compliance
Whenever possible, students should be provided with a link to copies of audiovisual works made legally available online. This could include a clip from a CBS news program posted to CBS’s website or a film already available in an electronic format in one of the library’s databases (see our Videos Guide for more information). When students are required to watch a film in its entirety in a streaming format, this may also include directing them to access videos made available through third party streaming services, e.g. Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and Hulu.

Requests the library MAY be able to make available via its SVR service include:

• Videos that are not available through our streaming media platforms or through third party streaming services, e.g. Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and Hulu, AND
• Requests that fall within the realm of the fair use and TEACH Act exemptions found in US copyright law.

For those instances where a lawful copy of a film is not readily accessible online:

• Requests for digitization via the SVR service should be made for only those audiovisual works that are being used for educational purposes as part of integral class instructional activities. Audiovisual works will not be digitized when being used for entertainment or convenience purposes.
• Instructors should carefully consider the amount of the film they need students to have access to and only request digitization of that part of the film.
• In an effort to limit access to the digitized audiovisual works to only those enrolled in the course, links to the digitized works will be made available through Canvas only.
• In an effort to prevent users from sharing works with those not enrolled in the course, all audiovisual works made available via SVR will be streamed using the Kaltura video streaming service.
• In certain situations, works may not be available for the library to acquire due to the distribution policies of the vendor. In these situations, students may need to purchase access to the work directly through the vendor. Examples include but are not limited to films and TV shows produced by services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon that are only accessible through a subscription to these services.
• All works streamed through the SVR service will be rendered inaccessible to faculty and students at the end of the semester or at an earlier date in the semester, if designated by the course instructor. Instructors must submit a new request for each semester the video is needed as the availability of streaming videos changes over time (i.e. a streaming license for a film may become available when it wasn’t previously), prompting a new fair use/TEACH Act determination each semester.

A member of the Miami University Libraries staff will contact the course instructor if there are any copyright concerns regarding their request. The Miami University Libraries reserves the right to refuse requests they deem are not made in compliance with the law.

If you have any questions about how US copyright law impacts this service, please contact Carla Myers, Coordinator of Scholarly Communications at 513-529-3935 or myersc2@miamioh.edu.

Streaming Video Reserve requests for the Oxford campus should be submitted using this form (you will be asked to log-in with your Miami University username and password).

Streaming Video Reserve requests for the Hamilton and Middletown campuses should be submitted using this form (you will be asked to log-in with your Miami University username and password).

The form will ask you to identify which campus you will be teaching from to help direct your request to the appropriate individuals.

This form asks instructors to document learning objectives to help demonstrate that their request would likely fall within the scope of the fair use or TEACH Act exemptions found in US copyright law. Instructors should carefully complete all required fields. Failure to do so may result in a delay in processing as the forms will be returned to the instructor to be completed.

For a work to be digitized as part of this program it must be owned by the Library. The library will carefully consider all purchase requests; however, purchasing decisions may be limited by the cost of the work, the Library’s budget for material expenditures, and considerations of how a requested work fits into the overall collection development practices and priorities of a particular collection. The Miami University Libraries are under no obligation to purchase these items. If you need assistance determining if the library owns a copy of the audiovisual work you are interested in having digitized as part of this service, please contact your Subject Librarian.

Requests must be submitted in a timely manner. Please note that processing these requests takes, at minimum, five business days. More time may be needed if the library must first acquire a copy of the video. Processing time may be substantially longer near the beginning of a semester, when an audiovisual work needs to be acquired for the collection and/or when a work needs to be modified for accessibility purposes. Ideally, requests should be submitted at least a month in advance of when they are needed for an assignment or instruction to help ensure plenty of time for processing.

Accessibility. If there is a student in the class who requires an accommodation such as closed captioning or audio description the Miami University Libraries will work with Student Disability Services to provide the accommodation. The faculty member who placed the digitization request is responsible for notifying the Library of these accommodation requests.

Questions about the submission process can be directed to: