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Informit Media
Informit Media enables you to search, browse, track and be alerted to television events and programs.
Informit Media is to television what full-text databases are to journals. It will revolutionise the way you use broadcast media. By indexing the full broadcast and seamlessly integrating with existing databases, for the first time, Informit Media allows students and researchers to thoroughly search broadcast content and access it conveniently and rapidly.
Informit Media consists of two databases, TVNews and RequestTV, which are hosted on the Informit service and are cross-searchable with other resources in a library's collection. TVNews indexes the majority of TV news stories, current affairs and documentary series broadcast on Australian television. Individual stories may be downloaded to the desktop in a compressed video format and/or be ordered for DVD delivery. RequestTV is an index of all television programs and provides the facility to order a DVD copy.
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, including federated search interfaces.
Access to downloads are available to institutions that have a Screenrights licence and participate in the sampling scheme. Other users will have access to DVD orders.
Click here to view the Informit Media presentation.
TVNews indexes and provides an abstract of Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks with links to the digitised content and/or DVD delivery. All individual stories from a particular broadcast are indexed with a detailed synopsis. Nightly news broadcasts, for example are indexed across ten or more records. The video download is of the specific story indexed in the specific record. Thus only relevant items need to be downloaded, viewed and stored off-line. In addition to an abstract and keywords, the broadcasts are searchable, allowing discovery to be based on general search terms. Alerts may also be set to inform users when subjects of interest have been aired and are available for download. Using the Informit interface, programs may be browsed to locate stories from a known program on a known date. The content will remain online indefinitely, allowing an archive of Australian TV news.
The index is updated continuously, with stories appearing on an evening news broadcast being available for access the next morning. Items range from under 30 seconds for short stories, to an hour for selected documentaries. DVDs of the content may also be ordered.
The video is available in WMV format in a progressive download, allowing viewing to begin before the total video file is transferred. It may be used under the conditions outlined in the institution's Screenrights licence.
View TVNews Sample Program Guide
Due for release March 08, RequestTV is a fully searchable and browsable program guide of all television content from the free-to-air networks. As an Informit database it is compatible will all federated search engines and library catalogues. Programs will be available and maintained from the database's inception allowing for the creation of a rich archive of Australian television. Links within the records allow efficient and streamlined ordering of programs for DVD delivery.