NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 28 number 3 - Spring 2008

Watch PBS Programs on Your Desktop

NC State faculty, staff, and students can now view some of the best and most popular PBS educational and documentary programming online. Nearly 250 PBS programs including the Emmy Award-winning series American Experience and Frontline, as well as ground-breaking documentaries--such as Ken Burns's The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz--are now conveniently available as online streaming videos through NC LIVE, North Carolina's virtual library cooperative.

Viewers can access the collection through the NCSU Libraries' catalog or through the NC LIVE Web site. Both methods require a high-speed Internet connection and Flash Media Player 9.0 or higher. Remote access to the collection through the catalog requires an NC State Unity ID and password. Any North Carolina resident lacking a Unity ID and password can access the videos through their local public library or any other NC LIVE member library.

NC LIVE is the first virtual library cooperative in the country to offer statewide access to the PBS programs. The state's leading purveyor of online library content and services, NC LIVE provides all of the University of North Carolina campuses, community colleges, independent colleges and universities, and public libraries with articles and indexing from more than 25,000 newspapers, journals, magazines, and encyclopedias and access to over 25,000 electronic-book and e-audiobook titles. NC LIVE operates from its offices located at the NCSU Libraries and UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries.

Also collaborating on the project is UNC-TV, North Carolina's statewide public television network, which is contributing resources to make the streaming-video content available to online users. Paid for by grants from the North Carolina State Library in downtown Raleigh, the programs available from the PBS collection also include a variety of videos targeted to children such as selected episodes from the highly acclaimed Cyberchase and Liberty Kids series.