Streaming Video & Audio Databases
Visiting The Wittliff Collections
The Wittliff Collections are located on the 7th Floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.
Hours vary throughout the year
Please call ahead: 512.245.2313.
To make an appointment to conduct research in the archives or meet with an archivist, visit the Research section of our website.
Selected Streaming Databases
There are plenty more! Visit the Streaming Databases for the complete list.
- Academic Video Online: Premium This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive multidisciplinary academic streaming video collection. Includes newsreels, award-winning documentaries, field recordings, interviews, lectures, training videos, and exclusive primary footage.
- Audio Drama: The L.A. Theater Works CollectionAudio recordings of the dramatic works from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company.
- BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of the complete dramatic works of William Shakespeare broadcast by the BBC in the 1980s.
- Films on Demand: Master Academic Collection This link opens in a new window
Educational, close-captioned videos on all subject areas. Includes archival film and newsreels, documentaries and films from producers such as A&E, BBC learning, and PBS.An external tool is available in Canvas to embed Films on Demand videos.
- Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
Streaming videos from BBC, PBS, Documentary Educational Resources, Criterion Collection and others. The platform allows you to make playlists and clips, and share links.
- American Music This link opens in a new windowRecordings of American roots music and pre-1960 American popular music. Includes country, slave, spiritual, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, and shape note singing. 1911 to present.
- Classical Music Library This link opens in a new windowNearly one million recordings. Includes major genres and time periods, from choral works to symphonies, operas and the avant-garde, from medieval to contemporary.
- Contemporary World Music This link opens in a new windowLarge international collection of contemporary recordings including The Voice of the People, a 20-volume series of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh traditional music.
- Dance in Video This link opens in a new windowPerformances and productions by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th and 21st centuries. Search and browse by performer, dance company, technique, genre, choreographer, or venue. 1955 to present.
- Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new windowBritish theatrical productions and behind-the-scenes documentaries and interviews with professionals from all aspects of bringing a play to the stage.
- DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) This link opens in a new window
Recordings by New World Records and other independent labels. Includes a wide range of genres. 1975 to present. NOTE: Safari is not a supported browser.
- Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Classical works to contemporary plays combined with critical analysis, contextual information, biographies, genres and Nick Hern books.
- Jazz Music Library This link opens in a new windowThousands of recordings of jazz music by performers from legendary record labels. Browse by instrument category, genre and sub-genre, artist and ensemble. 1920s to present.
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical music from Medieval to contemporary. Access over 98,000 CDs from the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus the complete catalogues or selected titles from over 375 classical, jazz and world music labels.
- Speech Accent Archive This link opens in a new windowThe speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed.
- Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new windowA selection of feature films from well-known studios such as MGM, Miramax, United Artists, Columbia Pictures, and Dreamworks. These films are NOT LICENSED for public events. They may be streamed only in a face-to-face classroom setting or for individual use.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Graphically rich primary sources depicting popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Media Collections at Alkek
If you are looking for audio recordings or videos of plays, you can search the Library Catalog by the play title, by author, or by main actor.
Most media content (videos, cassettes, DVDs, and CDs) at Alkek can be found on the 3rd floor.
There are vcrs, dvd players, and other formats available upstairs for playback.