As of this month, UFV students looking to get their movie fix on the Kanopy streaming service will find their options limited due to unexpectedly high operational costs.
Kanopy, a Netflix-esque digital film catalogue designed for universities and public libraries, provides users with access to a wide catalogue of documentaries, indie films, and classic cinema. UFV students can access its considerable catalogue at any time through the library website, though some content — particularly independent films — is no longer available.
After making Kanopy available to UFV students early last year, budgetary constraints have forced the UFV library to limit student access to a smaller set of films on the service.
According to Patti Wilson, collections and electronic resources librarian at UFV, these cuts are largely driven by Kanopy’s costly business model. Each time a film is viewed four times or more, Kanopy charges a per-title fee of $150 for a one-year license, an operational cost that UFV and dozens of other universities, including UBC and UVic, have found unsustainable.
Several of Kanopy’s most prolific clients, including Stanford University and the New York Public Library, were also forced to drop the service completely last year, citing unsustainable costs.
The films that UFV students still have access to include content from the Media Education Foundation, the Criterion Collection, Psychotherapy.net, and a wide variety of documentaries. These packages were selected by the library based on their analysis of student usage, and the films’ academic fit for UFV’s programs.
UFV students looking to view films that are no longer available on Kanopy may also access the National Film Board’s campus collection and the Films On Demand website through the UFV library’s database portal. Some content that was previously available on Kanopy is also available through these services.
