House of Cards: The Academic Library Media Center in the Era of Streaming Video

In a time of increasing financial pressures on universities, the expense of library resources—and the potential for cost inflation—threaten the academic library collection. This article asks whether the academic library media center will be able to continue to offer a stable inventory of films, given the legal and commercial structures currently in place. It provides a history of the film industry’s interactions with its intermediaries, forecasts some of the obstacles to ongoing feature film affordability and access in libraries, offers strategies for librarians, and suggests some cause for hope.