You may not mind paying $12 at your local movie theater to see that latest flick but did you know you can log in to Oviatt Library resources and watch a film for free and learn something new at the same time? Our Films on Demand multidisciplinary streaming video service provides CSUN students, staff and faculty with access to more than 5,000 digital and educational titles. The beauty of the service is that the films within this database collection can be watched from any computer with your CSUN User ID and Password. Some faculty members have embedded Films on Demand movie links into course pages on Moodle to provide easy access for their students. But the collection can also be accessed from Databases A-Z on the Library’s homepage.
Films can be as short as 10 minutes to an hour long. One faculty member reported being “thrilled” with the selection of titles the database carries within her discipline. She found one video that was even more poignant than the film she had been showing regularly to her classes. The subjects covered are varied but are within a wide-range of disciplines that include anthropology, health & medicine and music & dance just to name a few. Overall, the collection carries films in the areas of humanities, education and the sciences. A Special Collections section within the database also provides access to films from a variety of well-known series such as the American Experience, Frontline and Tedtalks. The videos can be watched in their entirety or segment by segment which is handy if you only want to find or watch a particular part of a film.
