Fifty-seven percent of academic libraries report that the use of audiovisual (AV) sources such as news reels, recordings, performances, and films have increased over the past three years—with 21 percent describing significantly increased usage—while only 15 percent say that use of these resources have decreased, according to Library Journal’s recent AV Primary Sources Survey of Academic Libraries, sponsored by AM, that netted 220 responses from academic librarians in the United States and Canada. Thirteen percent of respondents said that college and university students now prefer AV primary source materials, compared with 18 percent who prefer print and other archival primary source materials (36 percent said students don’t appear to have a preference, 27 percent said they don’t know, and 7 percent responded “other”).

And 10 percent of respondents said that students “often” conduct active searches for AV content to complete research assignments, while 55 percent said they “sometimes” actively search for this content. While a third of respondents (33 percent) said that students “rarely” actively searched for AV resources, only 1 percent said they “never” searched for this content. “We suspect [usage] is largely subject/discipline-specific and can be impacted by the requirements that faculty set for their courses,” according to the survey’s executive summary.

On a related note, almost a third of respondents (30 percent) said that faculty were “not too likely” to suggest using AV primary sources for research assignments, while 49 percent said faculty were “somewhat likely” and eight percent said “very likely” to suggest these resources. “Again, this could be a subject-specific or faculty-specific issue,” the summary notes. “In the former case, some subjects may not be well-represented via AV (scientific studies and journal articles, for example) and in the latter case, some faculty may be ‘old school’ and prefer legacy media over audiovisual resources.”

Thirty-two percent of respondents described accessibility as the primary benefit of AV source material, with several explaining in open-ended comments that these sources can help students with reading difficulties, for example. An additional 20 percent said that these sources serve students with different learning modalities. And one respondent from a university in the northeast wrote that for some topics, AV sources were superior to other sources. “Some things are meant to be seen/experienced. Watching therapy videos between a therapist and client is invaluable to psych students, and we’ve even found some of the Shakespearean plays are valuable to the English students to really get a better experience with the material.”

But there are challenges to providing AV sources as well. One respondent from another northeastern university listed several, including “gaps in content; poor metadata; poor audio/video quality; lack of subtitles in video content; lack of library ownership; a ‘black hole’ of uncollectible materials which are not licensed via platforms and are also not for sale to institutions—this last in particular is a significant barrier to collecting and providing access to contemporary, younger, and experimental composers, and disproportionately impacts BIPOC composers/ensembles; costs; [and the] inability to lend such content consortially.”

Several of these issues resonated with other respondents. Cost was cited by 29 percent of respondents as a key challenge to providing AV sources, while 12 percent described tech issues as a challenge—including basic issues such as a lack of DVD players on campus. Discoverability was also described as a challenge by 11 percent of respondents, with one writing that these sources integrated poorly with their discovery layer, and another observing that “there’s no place you can search all streaming platforms and DVDs at once.” And 10 percent said that low student awareness of AV resources posed a challenge.

Many academic libraries do support faculty interested in using AV resources by providing LibGuides or tutorials, or instructing faculty on how to link to these resources in their institution’s learning management system (LMS). However, most survey respondents felt that libraries could do more. Thirty-two percent of respondents felt that their library could be doing more active promotion of AV resources, while 20 percent said they could be having more conversations with faculty about available resources, and 17 percent said creating tutorials for faculty that explain licensing terms and how to request and embed these resources might help boost usage.

Almost half of respondents expect their library to increase spending on AV resources during the next two years, with six percent expecting a significant increase, and 42 percent expecting a slight increase. Another 39 percent expect spending to stay the same. Only 14 percent expect a net decrease.

The full 47-page report, sponsored by AM, includes additional information, such as the most sought-after AV content, the impact of born-digital content, diversity issues, the perceived effectiveness of AV content compared with other library materials, and more.