New procedures to access the OAIMC Digital Collection

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Announcements and Updates

New procedures to access the OAIMC Digital Video Collection
October 9, 2006

Dear Colleagues,

Ohio Area Instructional Media Centers (OAIMC) continue to expand their Digital Video Collection (DVC), with additional titles and easier access for home use by all Ohio’s K-12 educators, students and their parents. The DVC now contains more than 200 videos, with more than 700 instructional modules, and includes programs for almost all subjects and grade levels. The entire collection is available without charge to Ohio’s K-12 community. Home access is provided with the same username and password that is required for INFOhio’s Core Collection of Electronic Resources.

There are various ways to access the Digital Video Collection. Bookmark the access points that best serve your needs.

Click here to visit the catalogs of more than 40 agencies automated by INFOhio. Includes links to more than 150 free digital titles.

From the INFOhio home page, click on the Ohio Media Resources button. Then click on the Digital Video Collection button, and use one of the links in the table near the top of the page.

The first link, Title List, leads to an alphabetical listing of each video. This list notes segments (chapters) available for most of the programs. With segments, instructors can use just that part of the video that meets their instructional objectives. Those programs without chapters are in the Unsegmented Digital Titles section.

The second table entry displays an INFOhio Curriculum Resource Catalog (CRC) search (Area Media Centers Digital Videos) that lists all videos in the DVC, with the newest titles at the top of the list. Use CRC features to sort the list in various ways or to limit your search to specific subjects or a particular title. For example, use Area Media Centers Digital Videos AND rocks to locate the seven titles that use rocks as a subject heading.

An image from INFOhio's Curriculum Resource Catalog.

At the list of titles, each entry has two hyperlinks. The title link leads to the full bibliographic record that contains buttons for streaming and downloading. The streaming file prompts for Windows Media Player, available for free from INFOhio’s Multimedia Tools page for both Windows and Macintosh systems.

Because of limited local bandwidth and other restrictions, some educators are not able to stream digital videos. In such cases, downloading may be advisable; DVC programs can be saved on a local computer for no more than 45 days. Downloaded programs can be played with Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and QuickTime.

Another option is to use the second hyperlink, Locate this Media title, to order a CD version of the program from your Area Media Center. This procedure requires a client number and password, free for the Digital Video Collection. CDs mailed or otherwise delivered to the customer can be used with the center’s regular circulation policies, usually no more than 45 days, and then returned.

Visit your Ohio Area Media Center, the third link on the table, provides access to Ohio Area Instructional Media Centers' online catalogs that include the free Digital Video Collection, as well as other K-12 resources that may be available as part of your membership or for a small fee.

Also on the table are links to other formats for the DVC. One is a list of DVC titles grouped by publishers, showing the wide range of products selected for the collection. Two printouts are available, a subject index, and an annotated title list.

Many videos have teacher’s guides and related Web links that are accessible within OAIMC and INFOhio Curriculum Resources Catalog bibliographic records. CDs contain available material, as well.

The OAIMC partners with INFOhio to provide the Digital Video Collection. The files are housed on a server hosted by INFOhio. OAIMC collections are automated with Medianet, booking software supported by INFOhio for more than 40 Ohio agencies.

Prior to this school year, the DVC was hosted by OhioLINK. The OAIMC and INFOhio appreciate OhioLINK’s assistance to provide these programs to Ohio’s K-12 community.

Technical Information - Building/District technology coordinators may have to prepare their servers to allow streaming and downloading, according to local policies. In addition to the software mentioned above, the Digital Video Collection requires open ports (20, 80, 135, 1755, 7007 and a group from the range 1024-5000). Streaming files are .WMV format; downloading files are .MPG format.

For technical help regarding the Digital Video Collection, please make sure you have necessary plug-ins and your technology coordinator has opened necessary ports on local servers. For other technical problems, contact support@infohio.org. For more information about the DVC, contact Tony Marshalek at marshalek@infohio.org.

Tony Marshalek
INFOhio Content & Collection Development Specialist
marshalek@infohio.org