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Streaming Services

Information and instruction on the streaming services available through the Rebecca Crown Library at Dominican University

Kanopy Video Streaming

At Kanopy we believe in the power of film to bridge cultural boundaries and bring people together. The films that truly resonate with us do more than just entertain. They inspire us, enrich us, and challenge our perspectives. Kanopy ensures that these films reach viewers around the world. Log in with your library membership and enjoy our diverse catalog with new titles added every month.

TECHNICAL HELP WITH KANOPY

Tutorials

Films on Kanopy can be found in the following ways:

  1. Browsing by subject
    Use the "Browse Subjects" dropdown feature at the top of the website to navigate to find films on particular topics.
  2. Searching for keywords
    Use the search box to search for a topic, film title, filmmaker, or person.

To find a film, enter the term you are looking for in the search box and press Enter on your keyboard or the search button. The most relevant titles will be displayed. You can then use the search filters on the left to filter and narrow your search down to select criteria (such as subject, supplier, year of production, language, etc).

Some tips for searching

Here are some tips for using the search tool to your advantage:

Looking for an exact film title or phrase
Enter your search term in quotation marks to ensure you look for the exact phrase

Example: "Killing Us Softly" will bring up the exact film or "group theory" will bring up films that must have the phrase "group theory".

Looking for two terms
Include the Boolean term "and" between search terms to ensure you get results that must contain both words, not just either word.

Example: searching for "American AND politics" searches for films that must contain both words, not either word)

Excluding results:
Include the boolean term "not" to exclude certain words in your results.

Example: searching for "environment NOT learning" searches for films that contain the word environment but not the word learning.

Wildcard searches:
Include a wildcard "*" on a search term to search for a base character pattern that forms the base of multiple related words that you are looking for

Example: searching for "politic*" will search for anything containing the words politic, politics, political, etc or "wom*n" will search for both women and woman.

Dominican University utilizes a Mediated Access model with Kanopy. Which means the university has the ability to make Kanopy available to our community while managing the costs. Faculty, staff, and students will often have immediate access to all films that the library has licensed. However, you might encounter a Request Form if you select a video that we do not currently have access to. Through this form, you may request access to any movie that you need for academic purposes. 

When you submit a request form, a librarian will review and approve or reject the request. Please note that a request may be denied based on existing funds. Approval will also be dependent on justifiable academic need & available funds. 

The Request Form will look like this:

Below every video on the Kanopy website, you will see a button which says "Share/Embed." Clicking on this button will display three options for sharing and embedding films:

  1. The direct link to the film that you can send as a URL to anyone associated with your university/library
  2. Social media options to share via Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  3. The embed link which you can copy and paste into a website or course management system post so that the film appears and can be watched there (as opposed to providing a link to open up a separate webpage). If you would like to learn more about how to embed films, you can see how to here.

All sharing and embedding options are also available below any clip or playlist you create as well.

If you are linking to a playlist and would like to begin at a specific clip, you can force the video to start at this clip by adding "&pos=#" at the end of the sharing link. Replace the # with the position number of the clip within the playlist. For example, if you want the video to begin at the second clip, the URL in the HTML code will look similar to this: "https://sfpl.kanopystreaming.com/node/12345&pos=2"

To embed a film:

  1. Click the "Share" button that appears below the video player and select the Embed tab.
  2. Copy the HTML code that appears in the box and paste it into your LMS HTML editor or website code.

If you are embedding a playlist and would like to begin at a specific clip, you can force the video to start at this clip by adding "&pos=#" at the end of the URL in the embed code. Replace the # with the position number of the clip within the playlist. For example, if you want the embedded playlist to begin at the second clip, the URL in the HTML code will look similar to this: "https://sfpl.kanopystreaming.com/embed/1234567&pos=2"

Unlike public streaming websites (such as YouTube) your Kanopy website access is controlled to ensure only users of your institution can access it. These access controls also apply to embedded films. For example, if you are at a university and embed a film, off-campus users will be prompted to log in with their student/staff ID in order to load the film.