Do you use KANOPY: the free library-based streaming service?

[Bundbuster]

It's the best free source of progressive documentaries, movies of all kinds including great Indies, foreign films, and classic cinema.

https://www.kanopy.com/en

I'm there every night, and still never reach my monthly quota (I got a second library card from another county just to be sure). Even if Netflix and Amazon Prime were free, I'd still be watching more Kanopy.

[hlthe2b]

1. Good to know. Yet ANOTHER reason to support our local libraries!

[cilla4progress]

2. Starting to...

thanks!

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Libraries are in collusion with colleges to save culture

Do they have obscure out of print movies? Some movies never made it to the digital age. I'm thinking of the first movie I ever rented, a Michael Caine comedy called "Water" set on a Caribbean island. Not to be confused with his later effort Blame it on Rio.

But there's also "You Can't Take it With You" from 1938, which has been remastered.

[Bundbuster]

7. They do have some old, obscure movies

but their documentaries are absolutely the best - ones you'd never see anywhere else, no holds barred on progressive, controversial subjects. It's all shown with no interruptions, no ads, no bleeping strong language. Just super refreshing, I always come away feeling better about life.

[kskiska]

22. I love the old, obscure movies the best!

[obamanut2012]

13. Yes!

[Kaleva]

4. Bookmarked

[Hekate]

5. Will check it out

[Midnight Writer]

6. I'm glad to see libraries adapting to our changing technology. May they live forever.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. I did, once, but Kanopy costs the library a ton of money.

They get billed for the movies you watch.

[Bundbuster]

10. Really? I never heard of that

With fascists always trying to defund public libraries, that sucks. But the cost of Kanopy views must be comfortably within the libraries' budgets, no?

[obamanut2012]

12. This is outdated info -- check my reply below yours

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Thanks for the correction. I'll ask. I know my local library dropped it, as it was

costing them too much. It looks as if they're back now. When I tried to register many months ago, my library was not on the list. The one in an adjacent county was.

I'll talk to them. I never meant to make the library pay for my viewing habits.

Thanks again.

Edited: I just called. They had got rid of it, but they are in the process of bringing it back.

2020: https://alexlibraryva.org/streaming-movies

STREAMING MOVIES

As of May 1, 2020, Alexandria Library customers will no longer have access to the Kanopy on-demand film streaming service. The Library began offering the service in July 2018 due to public demand for download movie streaming services. We were offering customers 8 titles per month “free” at a pay- per-use cost of $2 to the Library for videos that played longer than 4 minutes. We soon incurred extremely high costs and in an attempt to maintain the service, lowered downloads to 4 titles per month to ease our budget costs. Kanopy then decided to “package” offerings into specialty groups and increased the price to $5 per download, cancelling any cost savings and overrunning our budget. Additional and continual changes within Kanopy’s price packaging structure have made it difficult for the Library to continue offering the service.

2024: I go to the Kanopy website, and my local library comes right up.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/alexlib/signup/auth/publiclibrary

[obamanut2012]

17. Yay! Good

Having it be transactional was never going to work, library funding is too tight, so I was surprised they kept it so long. Most libraries now use teh subscription model. Not cheap, because nothing even is, but more affordable.

[tanyev]

16. My library uses Kanopy's ticket system.

15 tickets per month, per library card, so 30 tickets between my husband and I.

Kanopy’s not cheap for the library, but it is budgeted in advance, so don’t worry that your viewing activities are breaking their budget. If your library system is not currently limiting usage then they probably don’t have a huge number of users taking advantage of it. When they need to set limits, they will.

[obamanut2012]

11. Not actually true in most cases -- it is now a subscription model for most libararies

I know this for a fact, because my wife is in charge of digital subscriptions (as well as many other things) at her library. This model started about 15 months ago.

[Bundbuster]

15. Thanks for the info. Now I'll watch with a clearer conscience.

[obamanut2012]

18. Yay!

Having it be transactional was never going to work, library funding is too tight, so I was surprised they kept it so long. Most libraries now use teh subscription model. Not cheap, because nothing even is, but more affordable.

[obamanut2012]

9. Yes, and there is also an app you can use on your phone, Roku/firestick/Apple TV

[xmas74]

19. Kanopy and Hoopla

Along with Libby.

[surrealAmerican]

20. I used to ...

... but my local library dropped it.

They do offer Hoopla, which we use a lot for audiobooks.

[kskiska]

21. I do, all the time. It's great!

My library also offers "Hoopla," which also has movies, music, and other stuff - all free. There are limits, though, just like Kanopy.

[hwmnbn]

23. Out of luck...

Chicago Public Library does not offer access.

I wonder why?

[dmr]

24. Thank you, Bundbuster for the link, also

another thank you to the responding posters who offered good and interesting information.

Gonna grab my library card to register. I can't wait to see all that is available.

Thank you, again.