Access Video on Demand, from Facts On File and Films Media Group | eReviews
May 15, 2011Access Video on Demand
Facts On File and Films Media Group, http://www.infobasepublishing.com/StreamingPLLanding.aspx
CONTENT Access Video on Demand is a streaming video subscription service for public libraries using the Films on Demand platform, providing access to 7800-plus full-length videos and 88,000 video clips in nine individual collections (also available as a bundled package): Arts and Humanities; Business and Economics; Science, Math, and Technology; Social Sciences; Careers and Trades; Health and Wellness; Home and Family; Archival Films and Newsreels; and Travel and Recreation. Content comes from over 700 video producers, including the A&E Television Networks, ABC News, the BBC, PBS, National Geographic, and NBC News. Service features include 24/7 unlimited simultaneous user access, remote access, multiple playback resolution options, closed-captioning (on many titles), the capability for users to save and organize favorite videos, usage tracking and reporting statistics, and customized MARC records. Perhaps most notably, the majority of titles come with public performance rights.
USABILITY The opening screen has a large window with Featured Videos at center right screen and a listing of available subjects at left. At the end of the list is a link to Most Viewed Videos. Up top is a (tiny) User Log In link, beneath which are three tabs: Home, My Favorites, and My Preferences. Still further below, a search box with a drop-down menu to select Search by Segments or Search by Titles. In the same toolbar is a link to Advanced Search and Help. Just below Advanced Search is a link to “Watch Home Page Tutorial.”
I only got through a minute of the tutorial: it’s six minutes long, and I, like many users, didn’t want to spend that much time getting an overview of something I hadn’t used. So I tried a simple search for baseball (a press release notes Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns is a featured program here; since I would watch Ken Burns read a telephone book, I wanted to see his award-winning paean to our national pastime). I got 57 results, but none was Ken Burns’s Baseball. Then I realized the default setting for a simple search is to Search by Segments. I changed the drop-down to Search by Titles and did another search for baseball; 13 results, nothing by Burns. I went into Advanced Search and did a Keyword search for baseball ken burns. Nada. Then I tried a Keyword search for ken burns and got 26 results. The Civil War, Frank Lloyd Wright, Not for Ourselves Alone, but no Baseball. A Keyword search for baseball got the same 57 results as above. I’m assuming the press release was in error, though I definitely got a feel for the search options.
Then I did a simple search (by segments) for welder. I got nine results, all relevant (e.g., “Women in Construction Trades,” “Industrial Welder: Working with Metal and Job Satisfaction”). I pulled up and watched the “Working with Metal” segment; it was a little hard to hear but good overall. I clicked on the Full Title tab that displays next to the video and viewed a 17-minute video that “introduces viewers to the business of industrial welding.” Very good. I wanted to add the segment to My Favorites (I had easily created a user account within the system earlier), so I clicked into the Favorites tab below the video display, where I was prompted to Add (the selected item) to an existing folder in my favorites. I had no existing folders, but below that prompt was a box to Create a new favorites folder. I created the folder “welder,” added it (as directed), went back up to try to add the segment to this new folder, and couldn’t enter any text in the naming box, even after several attempts. On the third try I got bumped out of the system with an error message. That said, despite the trickiness, when I went back later, the “welder” folder was in my folder list, and I was able to retrieve my video segment.
As I browsed through the Crime & Law subject section, I came across a section titled The Criminal Mind. I pulled up the 38 listed titles and found a 49-minute video, Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler. Within, I got the list of ten constituent segments, all applicable and easy to find. Then I went back and did a simple search for adolf hitler (searching by segments, the default setting) and got 27 segments, but this video was nowhere in the list. When I performed a simple search by titles for adolf hitler (which required me to change the default setting from segments), it turned up.
This is quality material. The videos are useful, engrossing, and on-target for the audience, and the breadth of subject matter is considerable.
On the other hand, since at times I wasn’t able to find material I knew was in the file, I’m not enamored of the search capabilities. Alphabetization here is unevenly applied; the subject list at screen left is not alphabetized (runs from Home & Family to Crime & Law), whereas in the Archival Films and Newsreels subject section, the listings are alphabetized (Jazz Age and Depression to World War II), though it would make better sense for them to be chronological (World War I, Jazz Age, World War II, etc.). As noted, the User Log In link at screen top is tiny even after I upped the font size. In the results’ listings, it’s difficult to page through results of more than one page, because you have to either enter a page number or intuit that the less prominent red arrow next to the page numbers is the one you must use to go forward and back.
PRICING The starting price—for libraries with up to 10,000 cardholders—is $9700. Smaller-collection and promotional discounts are available as well.
BOTTOM LINE The content rates a ten; the delivery mechanisms not so high, so I give this file an overall eight in its beginning incarnation. For a free trial for qualified librarians and educators, call 800-257-5126 (press 3) or email PubLibOnline@InfobaseLearning.com. Do try this before you buy.
| Author Information |
| Cheryl LaGuardia is the Research Librarian for the Widener Library at Harvard University and author of becoming a Library Teacher (Neal-Schuman, 2000). Readers and producers can contact her at claguard@fas.harvard.edu |
