Streaming Databases and Other Resources
- Kanopy VideoMulti-disciplinary streaming video platform including educational videos and feature films with a focus on race and gender studies, communication, education, sociology, psychology, health sciences, and the arts.
- Kanopy - Japanese CinemaKanopy collection, limiting to Japanese films.
- Swank
Streaming video collection including feature films, documentaries, international films, and tv shows in multiple disciplines including film studies, sociology, history, communications, and more.
- Normal Public Library - Movie SearchThis link will take you to the Normal Public Library search page, limited to movies available in their global catalog. NOTE: Normal Public automatically shows results from it's shared catalog as well, not just items held at their location.
Searching for Videos
Milner Library has many films available in our physical and electronic collections. The suggestions below will help you find out what's available at the library.
You can search for library resources from Milner's homepage. The main search box will default to our "Everything" search. The first thing you want to do is to change that search option to "Library Catalog." Select the drop box on the right side of the search box to make this change. After that, enter your search terms into the box. You can look for specific titles or search for films on a topic from this box. If you don't have something specific in mind, I recommend search for a broad topic rather than something very specific. Just search for "Japan" or "Japan History" or "Japan culture" to get as many results as possible.
After you submit your search, a list of results will pop up. To just see movies, select the "Resource Type" limiter on the left side of the results page and select "Video." You will need to click the green "apply changes" button to change the list. You can also limit to either just films available as a physical DVD or BluRay or to streamable films in this same area of the results page. At the top of list of limiters, there is an "Availability option." Selecting "Held by Library" will show you items that are physically at Milner. Selecting "Available Online" will show you films we have online.
You can double check the location for individual titles in the results page. Underneath the the title of each film will be a location listing. If the location says, "Available online," it is a streamable film. If it says "Available at Milner Library" and includes a floor and call number, it is a physical item in our collection. You can check films out and watch them elsewhere, but Milner also has a media location equipped with players.
If you still can't find what you need, you can always change the search framework from "Library Catalog" back to "All I-Share Libraries." This expands your search to films available from other libraries around Illinois. If another Illinois library has a physical copy of a film, they most likely will be able to send it to Milner for checkout. I-share libraries cannot share streaming films. The video below walks you through the steps to request a film through I-share. The title of the video specifically lists "books," but the process is the same.