The Charleston Advisor / October 2020
www.charlestonco.com 5
ADVISOR REVIEWS—STANDARD REVIEW
Academic Video Online (AVON) Date of Review: August 12, 2020
doi:10.5260/chara.22.2.5
Composite Score: HHH 1/4 Reviewed by: Thomas J. Beck Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado
Abstract Academic Video Online (AVON) is an Alexander Street database. It presents an extensive collection of videos on a variety of topics and from numerous sources. Some of the most popular topics are American History, Anthropology, Black Studies, Counseling and Therapy, Music and Performing, and Science and Engineering. Popular sources include BBC Landmark, CNN, Film Platform, PBS, and Sony Classic Pictures. Many other topics are also available in this database, ranging from Art and Architecture to Fashion Studies to World Music, and from World History to Hawaiian Studies to Cooking. Additional sources include CBS, Third World Newsreel, Mayo Clinic, American Academy of Pediatrics, Nippon News, and FilmRise. The visual and audio qualities of the videos on offer here are excellent, they are easy to navigate, and include transcripts. Videos can be browsed by topic or source, or searched for using a single search bar, which allows the user various filtering options. The search and filtering options here produce useful results, though the number of those can vary considerably depending on the search done. However, the search options available can be confusing to the user, due to the unexplained separation of the database into groupings of videos, Channels, and Collections (see User Interface/Navigation/ Searching for more information). As a consequence, users may not be able to use the database most effectively, and/or appreciate the full scope of material available here. Pricing for this database can vary considerably, as it is based on FTE, budget, and the number of prospective users. No more specific pricing information is available from the vender. The licensing agreement for this database, on the other hand, is relatively standard in its length, structure, and content. The quality and quantity of AVON’s content is high and should appeal to a wide variety of students and faculty in various disciplines, though users will have to learn AVON’s search idiosyncrasies, which can cause confusion.
Pricing Options Pricing is determined by institution size (FTE), budget, the number of prospective users, and the number of sites served. Consortia pricing is also available. Please contact the vendor for pricing specific to your institution. Individual titles can be purchased from this database (instead of subscribing to the entire database content) in most instances, but not all, depending on publisher restrictions.
Product Overview/Description This database is a grouping of approximately 67,000 streaming videos on a wide variety of subjects. These videos are grouped into Channels, which can be films from a publisher or that deal with specific topics, events, or persons. Alexander Street, the vendor for this
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database, refers to all of its databases as Collections, and AVON subscribers can access a number of other Alexander Street databases in addition to AVON itself. This may be confusing to users, in that a grouping of videos within the database can be a Channel, or an entirely different database, i.e., a Collection. These other databases include American History in Video, American Newsreels in Video, and several others, and all are automatically included in a subscription to AVON (i.e., they don’t need to be subscribed to separately). As already mentioned, channels can relate to topics, persons, or events, such as LGBT Studies, Anthropology, Science & Engineering, Dance, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, American Civil War, and many more. Others are source (i.e., publisher) or category based, including Documentary, A+E Networks, Annenberg Learner, and 360VR video (i.e., films where, per the database, “a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras”). Windows users will find AVON works best with Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. For Mac users, Firefox, Chrome, and Mojave will work best. It won’t support DRM playback on iOS devices or in Safari (which at this time only effects their titles from Sony Pictures Classics). Using VR headsets such as Google Cardboard or Daydream to playback 360 VR videos is only supported on Android devices. This database offers unlimited concurrent access to authorized users. Those researching any variety of subjects can make use of it, including high school and college/university students and faculty.
User Interface/Navigation/Searching The landing page for this database is bright and engaging, but can be somewhat confusing to use. There is a single search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the page. From there the user can search using one or more key words, and narrow the search to Current Channel, All Videos, or All Channels. A search for “criminal justice” limited to All Channels, for example, will produce a list of 192 channels (as of August 12, 2020). The channels are sorted by relevance, and the results list displays the name of each, as well as the number of videos there. Results found at the top of the list are on point for criminal justice, with channels like Criminal Justice Studies, Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video, American Justice, and Scenes of Crime. Those farther down the list, however, are not so obviously relevant, such as Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Latin America Studies Collection, and Chemistry, though it’s possible to envision a situation in which these might relate to the topic in question. If this search is resubmitted with the limitation changed to All Videos, it produces 2,496 videos (again, as of August 12, 2020). These were on point for the subject queried, throughout the results list, with video titles like History of American Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Professionals, The Battle for Justice, and Criminal Court Process and Procedure. Resubmitting the
