Full Stream Ahead: Designing a Collection Development Workflow for Streaming Video Content

Academic libraries face many challenges in collecting and maintaining streaming videos, particularly as demand for this unique format continues to increase. At the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge, it was determined that streaming video activity needed to be examined and that there was a strong need to develop a workflow for incoming video requests. A Video Streaming Decision Tree Committee composed of librarians and staff from various units within the library including collection development, acquisitions, cataloging, and music and media. Its charge was to create a decision tree workflow for incoming streaming video requests. The committee designed and implemented a detailed decision tree that accounts for many of the complexities of streaming video. This paper discusses various factors involved with collection development for streaming video and provides a detailed description of the committee’s workflow for the format.