How Did that Get in There?: Streaming Media in the Land of Discovery

Abstract

Audio and video content have had a history of isolation from mainstream discovery and delivery in large part due to the complexities of the lending systems that have developed around them. These systems have dictated a concentration on the carrier over the content and resulted in multiple barriers to use. Streaming media offer a chance to remove these barriers by eliminating the systems involved and allowing the content to shine through the carrier. Given the advent of YouTube and everything it entails, users are clearly ready for this shift, but are multimedia content providers, library service providers, and librarians?

Over the past several years, there has been an increasing demand for audio and video streaming collections in libraries. The overhead required for an academic institution to provide streaming audio and video services to users has been prohibitive, and collection budgets in general have shifted heavily toward electronic resources. As a result, eyes have turned to online, virtual solutions, but have minds turned, too?

Books and journals seem to continue to rule many of the ways in which the library world considers and treats its content, from catalog records and online delivery to standards development and coverage in library systems. Are streaming videos included in A-Z title lists? Do link resolvers deliver streaming audio content? Do discovery systems cover the elements users need to find streaming video and audio? Does fulltext have meaning in video or audio? This presentation covers the challenges that content providers, library service providers, and librarians face in ensuring the fullest possible coverage of streaming media in today’s discovery landscape. The focus is on the collaborative efforts needed from all of these parties to make audio and video content an intrinsic part of the library-learning environment.