Daily Skiff

San-ky Kim, assistant professor of voice and music, said when he wanted to show students video clips of certain performances, he would have to refer to videos on YouTube.com.

The problem with YouTube, Kim said, is that the clips' quality and credibility are not guaranteed.

Sometimes, students are required to go to live performances but might not be able to make it to them.

Now his students can find video clips of some performances in new media databases available on the music and media library Web site.

The music and media library has implemented new databases for online video streaming, especially opera, theatre and music video clips, said Laura Ruede, assistant librarian in the music and media library.

"We call this the 21st century research because we believe streaming is the way of future," Ruede said.

Cari Alexander, librarian of the music and media library, said the music and media library bought the databases from Alexander Street Press, a company that provides scholarly databases in arts, humanities and social sciences.

A Vision in Action grant provided $107,000 for the music and media library to purchase the databases, Alexander said. The Vision in Action grant provides funds for campus projects, from academic programs to technology infrastructure.

Ruede said the music and media library bought the databases from ground level, so all any new clips added to the databases are already paid for.

"It is a lot of money at the beginning," Ruede said. "But it saves a lot of money in the future."

Alexander said the university purchased three streaming video databases of opera, theater and music, as well as databases featuring texts with some images, graphics, charts and music notes, including Classical Music Reference Online, Classical Scores Library, African American Music Reference and Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.

She said the music and media library bought the databases in the summer and went through a weeding process, which saved a lot of space on the shelves in the library.

Ruede said most of the video and audio clips used to be in physical formats, so only one student could check out an item at a time, or some pieces coudln't last through two checkouts, which meant the item reached few people.

Now up to three students can watch the videos online at the same time.

"This really is a win-win solution for the library and the students," Alexander said.

She said the videos on the databases also have an introduction and related information of the video clips, which offers students a complete learning process.

Students can find videos through the library catalog or enter keywords on the library Web site to find the videos they need for their classes.

Christen Glennon, a senior vocal performance major, said the databases are beneficial because before their implementation, she had to make special trips to go to the music and media library to watch performances required for her classes.

All students and faculty have access to the databases, and guests have limited access to some of the sources in the databases, Ruede said.

"This is multi-sensory learning," Ruede said. "And students learn better this way."

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