Attention to all patrons who use the streaming platform Kanopy:

Kanopy is changing! Most movies will need to be requested before they can be viewed.

Kanopy gives UNT students, faculty, and staff access to an online catalog of streaming video and it is a popular resource — some people even describe it as “Netflix for libraries.” However, unlike Netflix, which allows a user unlimited access to all content for one small monthly fee, Kanopy charges individually for films whenever they are viewed 4 times for more than 30 seconds. We are licensing some films and seeing high usage, but other licensed films are watched only for a few minutes! As the popularity of Kanopy increases more people are browsing around on the platform previewing movies – this has led to significant spending increases.

Kanopy is a great platform with thousands of online movies that support and enhance UNT curriculum, and streaming video is a crucial resource for 21^st century university faculty and students. For these reasons, the Libraries want to continue providing access to the entire collection of films on Kanopy – with one notable change: we have decided to shift our involvement with Kanopy from automatic patron driven acquisition (PDA) to a mediated model of PDA.

This means that movies that do not already have a current license through Kanopy will be available for viewing only after library approval. If you find a film on Kanopy that you want to watch, an automated pop up will prompt you to send a small amount of information to the Media Library. Media Library staff will process and approve requests as they come in. If you are selecting a film for a specific course, please let us know when you will be teaching the course and whether or not the movie you need will continue to be included in future semesters. Most licenses on Kanopy expire after one year, so future access will be contingent upon extending or renewing licenses.

While this might not be a popular change in the immediate future, we are making it in order to ensure that we can continue to provide access to this valuable resource in a sustainable way.

This switch will take place on January 4^th as of 5:00 PM.