Informit Media: Discovery, alerts and direct access to broadcast programs

Laki Sideris, Manager, Product Development, RMIT Publishing. laki.sideris@rmit.edu.au

Keywords

library systems, databases, television, broadcast, media, news

Abstract

RMIT Publishing has developed Informit Media, a new collection of resources that will enable the academic and school communities to search, browse, be alerted to, and have access to television programs. They are hosted on the Informit service and are cross searchable with other resources in a library’s collection. The database TVNews, indexes the majority of TV news stories broadcast on Australian television. Individual stories may be dowloaded to the desktop in a compressed video format. A second database, RequestTV, is an index of all television programs and provides the facility to order a DVD for 48 hour delivery. Informit Media is a breakthrough service as it seamlessly integrates into a library’s electronic collection, and may be accessed via existing and familiar interfaces. A key feature is that all transcripts of all programs are fully searchable. Access to downloads to the media is available to institutions that have a Screenrights licence and participate in the sampling scheme. Other educational users will have access only to DVD orders. Informit Media facilitates more convenient and direct access to resources that the Institute already has rights to.