How to Find Videos

During the academic year (August - April), faculty are able to make requests for Kanopy films for class use or to supplement student learning and research. At the end of the academic year in May, the library restricts Kanopy licensing to prevent over expenditures.

Staff, students, and faculty will still be able to watch any licensed films in our collection (until the film licenses expire). These titles are posted on the spreadsheet linked below as Current Kanopy Licenses.

By default, users will still be able to find unlicensed films in your collection, but they won't be able to watch them. Instead, they'll be prompted to submit a request for purchase for unlicensed films. The library is notified of these requests by email and can decide whether to purchase licenses for those films.

Kanopy is a streaming service offering documentaries, foreign films, and classic and Independent films. Davidson College students, faculty, and staff have unmediated access to certain collections within the Kanopy streaming service. See the list below for the collections available unmediated. Films in these collections can be watched in full or partially by anyone at Davidson College. Upon the 4th view of a title that goes beyond 30 seconds, a 12-month license is purchased, this license is as high as $135.00. For a list of titles already licensed by Davidson College, see the link below to the Google spreadsheet "Current Kanopy Licenses."

During the academic year, faculty can request immediate license purchase of required films for a course on the Kanopy platform. Simply fill out the form on the Kanopy site and indicate which course the film is required viewing. Please allow 5- 7 days for a request to process through the library and Kanopy, although in most cases requests are fulfilled in 2-3 days. Prices vary. If you want to know the price of any title before you request the purchase, contact Kelly Denzer (kedenzer@davidson.edu). Once the license is purchased, the title is available for all Davidson student/faculty/staff and can be found on Kanopy through a search for the title for the length of the license (usually 12 months).

Kanopy supports simultaneous usage on all films so multiple users can access the same film on their own devices at the same time.

Once the purchase of a license is triggered at the 4th view of a title for more than 30 secs., Davidson College has unlimited viewing access to the film for 12 months. Linked below are the titles Davidson College has licensed over the past 12 months and will not trigger an additional charge to our library.

Click on this Spreadsheet to view Davidson College Current Kanopy Licenses

This list is updated monthly, as new titles become available, and old titles fall off.

Creating an account in Kanopy is optional. Using the library link for you will automatically be recognized as a Davidson affiliated user.

• (Optional) Create your Kanopy account. This account will allow you to save videos to view later, create clips and playlists, and use Kanopy's mobile and TV apps.
• To create your account, you can:
  • Sign up with an existing Apple or Google account.
  • Enter your first and last name, email address, and a password.
• You can also click the “skip” button instead of the create account or login to account button. After you click this you’d have to click the link again or search for the film because the skip button takes you to the Kanopy homepage instead of the film. You may find it easier to create a Kanopy account to avoid this off campus, but it is not required.

Listed below are the suppliers whose films are authorized for Davidson users to access unmediated from August 1 until the end of finals in May of each academic year. Additional titles needed for course use can be requested through the Kanopy site for library staff to license. Faculty can search for the film on the Kanopy site and if a message appears that indicates the film is "not available at your library," click to request. Please fill in your name, Davidson email, course number, and how the film will be used and submit. An email will be sent to the Collection Strategist at the library, who will then request the license from Kanopy.  The following collections were chosen based on faculty interest that we were aware of at the time of selection and the popularity of the collections in the previous year on Kanopy and that are not available on other Davidson College subscribed platforms.

• 1091 Media

  A24

  Cohen Film Collection

  Collective Eye Films

  Documentary Educational Resources

  Film Movement

  FilmRise

  Frameline

  Kino Lorber

  Magnolia Pictures

  Media Education Foundation

  Music Box Films

  New Day Films

  Pragda

  Samuel Goldwyn Films

  Seventh Art Releasing

  Strand Releasing

  The Criterion Collection

  Under the Milky Way

  Women Make Movies

  Zeitgeist Films

If you would like to preview a movie: Trailers are available on some titles on Kanopy while using the web platform. If available, you will see a Trailer button below the video player. Simply click this button to view. Trailers are provided by a third-party (Youtube). This is the best option for a preview and will not cost Davidson the additional 31+ sec view that could lead to an unnecessary license purchase.

Kanopy films are available to Davidson College students, staff, and faculty through the Davidson Kanopy site. To log-in, you will be sent to the Single Sign On page and gain access with your Davidson College credentials. If faculty request specific films for courses, the titles are accessible to all Davidson College students, staff, and faculty. To share a link on your syllabus or Moodle classroom, use the "share" option located below the film title.

When a clip or playlist is created, it has a unique URL and can be made public or kept private. The URL can be shared with others via email or otherwise, and there is a unique embed code for it as well. All clips and playlists will be saved on the platform for you under your profile, so that it is not lost and you can always revisit it (unless you manually delete the clip/playlist).  

1. Find the video that you want to create your first clip from. You can access the Playlist and Clip Creation Tool from any video on your institution’s Video Portal by clicking the "Create Clip/Playlist" button under the video player.
2. If you are not already signed in, the website will prompt you to log into your account so you can begin creating and managing your playlists. You can sign in with your social media account, your existing video portal account, or you can create a new account.
3. Once you signed in to your account, click on "Create Clip/Playlist" again and an option to create a new playlist will appear. Type in the name of your new playlist and click "Create." This will automatically add the current video to your playlist.
4. If you are adding to an existing playlist, click "Add Video" to add the video on this current video page to your playlist. You will see the number of clips change when adding the video.
5. Click on "Edit Playlist" to trim down the whole video into the clip that you want.
6. You can now edit the playlist title if you want to change it. Click "Save Changes" before navigating away from the page to ensure the new title is saved. To trim down the whole video into a clip, click "Edit."

7. To select the clip that you want in your playlist, you can either:
   - Click the player to start the film. When you want your clip to start, click "Capture" next to "Start Time". Then click "Capture" next to "Stop Time" when you want the clip to end.
   - Enter in the timecodes manually.

   Once you are happy with your clip, click "Save Clip"