Streaming Video and Audio: Home
A guide to selecting and using streaming video and audio resources available through the University at Buffalo Libraries.
Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025 10:45 AM
Teach Anywhere
The University Libraries' collections of streaming audio and video, including subscription databases, provide access to a wide range of documentaries, feature films, music and clinical instruction for class sessions, study, and research. Please visit UB’s Teach Anywhere webpage for details to help with creating and distributing remote instruction.
Library Subscriptions
The Library subscribes to the streaming media databases listed here that contain more than 70,000 films, including documentaries, performances, and feature films. If your specific film is not included in these databases, other options are available.
Finding a Streaming Title
- Check the Libraries' Catalog and the multi-disciplinary databases AVON, Kanopy, and Swank, as well as more specialized subject collections listed on this page.
- If your specific title is not included in these databases then please consider searching for an alternative title covering your topics.
- If an alternate title exists but we do not have a current license to the film or video, please submit a request using our Streaming Video Request form.
Many films available through popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon are not available for institutional licensing. In these cases, faculty must require students to purchase a temporary subscription (typically in the $10 range/month), sign up for a free trial, or to rent the film.
Note: 2 weeks notice is preferred for all film requests due to the high volume of requests received.
Streaming Media in the UB Libraries
- UB Libraries Catalog This link opens in a new windowThe University at Buffalo Libraries has secured the licensing to stream hundreds of video and audio titles directly from the Libraries’ Catalog.
- ArtFilms This link opens in a new windowA unique collection of streaming films from visual and performing arts: specifically art and art history, dance, architecture and design, fashion, new media, film and film studies, photography, theatre and more; the collection is geared toward educational bodies and practitioners.
- AVON - Academic Video Online This link opens in a new windowCurated, discipline-focused streaming media in a wide array of subject areas and film genres for learning and research.
- Counseling and Therapy in Video This link opens in a new windowOnline collection of video available for the study of social work, psychotherapy, psychology, and psychiatric counseling.
- DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) This link opens in a new windowDRAM offers streaming audio recordings, along with liner notes and essays, of over 4,000 albums' worth of recordings from over 40 independent labels and archives. DRAM includes full or partial catalogues of New World Records, CRI, Albany, innova, Cedille, XI, Pogus, Deep Listening, and Mutable Music and other labels. The music covers classical, folk, jazz, opera, Native American, electronic, musical theater and contemporary/experimental genres; emphasis is on North American music.
- Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) This link opens in a new windowThe EAI collection spans the mid-1960s to the present, and is recognized as one of the most comprehensive video art collections in the world.
- Environmental Studies (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new windowCoverage of environmental research, issues, policy, and decision-making in the form of full text journal articles, news stories, interactive maps, statistical data, refereed case studies, podcasts, and more.
- Henry Stewart Talks This link opens in a new windowAudio-visual streaming of lectures in the areas of biomedical and life sciences by the world’s leading experts.
- JoVE Unlimited This link opens in a new windowA peer reviewed video journal and science education platform.
- Kanopy Streaming Service This link opens in a new windowVideos from major educational film producers. Faculty may request the purchase of Kanopy Streaming Video films for instructional purposes. The UB Libraries will not purchase Kanopy Streaming Videos for recreational viewing. Access to requested films is for one year only and requires request for renewal thereafter.
- NAXOS Music Library This link opens in a new windowOnline recordings of classical, jazz, world and folk musics, with liner notes and other supplementary texts.
- OnArchitecture This link opens in a new windowAn online audiovisual service that provides a collection of original videos featuring interviews, buildings, and installations on prominent international contemporary architects and their projects.
- OntheBoards.tv This link opens in a new windowProvides video-on-demand access to performances in dance, theatre, music and other hard to categorize art forms.
- Pidgeon Digital This link opens in a new windowThe online version of The Pidgeon Audiovisual collection of talks by contemporary architects and related designers.
- Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new windowThe world's biggest archive of music journalism and pop writing of the last 60 years.
- Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new windowSwank Motion Pictures is the nontheatrical distributor of feature films for the majority of the major Hollywood studios.
Faculty may request the purchase of Swank Digital Campus Streaming Video films for instructional purposes. Libraries will not purchase Swank Streaming Videos for recreational viewing.
Note: If requesting Libraries purchase a specific film, please be aware that Swank Digital Campus is a licensee for major feature film studios, and it can take anywhere from several days to sometimes a few weeks to acquire the streaming rights. Two weeks notice is preferred for all film requests due to the high volume of requests received.
