Over the past two months we introduced you to resources for streaming videos at Leeward CC, including Academic Video Online (AVON), Feature Films for Education/Swank Digital Campus, and Docuseek. For the final post of this series, we’ve saved the (arguably) best for last: Kanopy.

Kanopy at a glance

• Currently contains more than 28,000 films, with new titles added periodically.
• Offers something for everyone, including feature films, documentaries, classics, foreign films, and more.
• Suppliers include The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, A&E, The History Channel, Kino Lorber, A24 Films, Magnolia Pictures, and many more.
• Operates on a pay-per-use model (we are charged a small fee each time a video is played).
• We also have the option to purchase up-front licenses for high-use titles.

Using Kanopy

To access this resource, start at our A-Z Databases page and select Kanopy from the list. Kanopy requires you to use a (free) personal account. If you already have an account, click on LOG IN in the top right corner. If you need to create an account, click on LOG IN TO LEEWARD and follow the prompts. For security purposes, do not use the same password that you use for your email.

Browse through the new releases and categories of interest on the page, or use the Browse and Search functions in the top left corner.

Click on any title to get to the video page. From this page you may Play the film or add it to your Watchlist. Select the Share tab to generate direct links and citations.

Any films added to your Watchlist are accessible by clicking on My Lists from the top left corner and selecting the My Watchlist tab.

Kanopy has many other features, including captions, transcripts, custom playlists, and a mobile app. For more detailed information, please visit Kanopy Help.

Keeping Kanopy affordable

Kanopy offers a wide variety of quality films in an attractive user interface, so it’s a very popular resource. Our Kanopy usage has increased steadily over the years, peaking during the pandemic-induced pivot to online learning. The downside is that higher usage leads to higher costs, since the great majority of our titles are pay-per-use. The chart below illustrates the trend in our monthly pay-per-use costs from 2019 – 2021.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to keep Kanopy affordable. You can help us out by notifying your library subject liaison or lccref@hawaii.edu if you intend to assign a Kanopy film for your class. Why?

• Some Kanopy films are also available via other resources (such as AVON) that charge a flat subscription fee for unlimited viewing of all titles on the platform. We can see if the title you want to use is available through one of these resources instead.
• If your title is available only through Kanopy and is likely to receive high usage (60+ views over the next year), it may be more cost-effective for us to purchase an up-front license. Licensed films do not incur additional pay-per-use fees.

Top 10 Kanopy videos at Leeward CC

What’s popular on Kanopy? Over the past 12 months, the following videos were the most viewed:

1. The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific
2. Miss Representation
3. Leonardo and the Mona Lisa
4. First Contact
5. Decoding Neanderthals
6. First Steps
7. Hitler’s Art Dealer
8. Pidgin: the Voice of Hawaiʻi 
9. Slaying the Dragon: Media Sterotypes of Asian & Asian American Women
10. Blue Gold: World Water Wars

. . . and that’s a wrap!

We hope you’ve learned something new about all of the great video resources available to you through your library. If you have any questions, please contact your library subject liaison or lccref@hawaii.edu. We are always happy to help!