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Changes to Kanopy Streaming Service

The Library is changing how we license films in Kanopy. Find out why we’re making this change [spoiler alert: it’s the cost!] and how you can access Kanopy content.

The Case for Changing our Kanopy Model

The Purchase College Library has transitioned to a limited access model for Kanopy, one of our streaming film vendors. This change comes as a result of the increasing costs of the service, which have escalated significantly in the past year and are no longer sustainable. 

First, it’s important for our users to understand that Kanopy does not charge the Library a flat fee like Academic Video Online (AVON) or like Netflix charges individuals. Until now, Kanopy users could choose to preview any title immediately. Once several users had viewed a title, a license for one year was automatically purchased at a significant cost of $120 per title, per year. Despite increasing our projected budget for Kanopy, the costs of this patron-driven model escalated exponentially, complicated by communication and billing issues with the vendor. Kanopy’s patron-driven model has become untenable in the past year and has essentially brought ordering for all the Library’s collections to a halt, even for books. 

We also discovered that many films were barely viewed beyond the first hit. Sometimes, licensed titles were actually duplicates of titles we already owned on DVD or in other streaming databases like Academic Video Online (AVON), wasting significant funds. Other colleges and universities across the country have found themselves in the same regrettable position and have instituted similar changes.

Requesting Kanopy Content

As we re-evaluate our relationship with Kanopy, we are allowing limited licensing for academic purposes only. In an effort to ensure that our limited budget is used to appropriately support course content, the Library is moving to a mediated model for Kanopy. From now on, if you are interested in a title, you will need to request a license. Licenses will be granted based on a combination of factors including, but not limited to:

  • title availability (unavailable in other formats or from other vendors)
  • class size and number of sections
  • pedagogical use (i.e. online and hybrid courses, flipped classroom, etc.)
  • senior project support

If users are merely looking to preview Kanopy content, we encourage you to make use of our relationship with the Westchester Library System (WLS). WLS offers users 10 Kanopy titles per month. NYPL has a similar arrangement. 

Faculty interested in streaming Kanopy titles for courses should not assume a title will be active on a particular date. To request or double-check an item’s license, contact Rebecca.Oling@purchase.edu with:

  • specific title
  • course information
  • the number of students
  • date/s needed

For more information, feel free to contact your subject liaison or Rebecca.Oling@purchase.edu 

Security Breach Issue

You may have heard recently that Kanopy suffered a data breach. Affected individuals have been contacted by Kanopy directly. The breach leaked user emails, account numbers, Kanopy passwords, and potentially the names of titles viewed, for those users who created accounts in Kanopy.

If you have a Kanopy account (meaning you can sign in, create a watchlist, receive targeted marketing emails, etc), you should change your password just to be safe.