science

Kanopy

Kanopy is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kanopy rather than just read about it. In short: Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, educational videos and documentaries. The service is free for end users, but libraries pay fees on a pay-per-view model, from which content owners and content creators are paid.

Key takeaways

Kanopy belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kanopy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kanopy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, educational videos and documentaries. The service is free for end users, but libraries pay fees on a pay-per-view model, from which content owners and content creators are paid. The company was founded in Scarborough, Western Australia, in 2008 and moved its headquarters to San Francisco, California a few years later. It was acquired by OverDrive in 2021.

History Kanopy was founded on December 25, 2008, at Scarborough, Western Australia, by Olivia Humphrey, an Australian entrepreneur, as an educational tool for colleges and universities. Until 2010, the company functioned only as a DVD distributor, moving into streaming in that year. After attaining considerable success in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, it expanded into the UK and US, and soon afterwards moved its headquarters to San Francisco, with Humphrey remaining as CEO. In November 2019, Kevin Sayar succeeded Humphrey as CEO. On June 9, 2021, OverDrive announced that it had reached a deal to acquire Kanopy. The acquisition was completed on July 15, 2021.

Services Kanopy provides each participating public library, college and university with a dedicated and customizable website through which members can stream films, TV shows, documentaries and educational videos. The service includes features such as captions, transcripts, clip creation, and playlist creation that allow users to create, edit and share videos.

Business model Public library patrons, college and university students and faculty are able to watch Kanopy free-of-charge with their institution's library card. Institutions pay for the films their students and faculty watch on a pay-per-view basis. This model used by libraries is referred to as "patron-driven acquisition", where each view (watching a video for 30 seconds or more) will prompt the sale of a license fee for that title. Costs vary per institutional contract, but have been estimated in 2019 for single titles to be $150 for one year, $350 for a three-year license. Librarians have access to an administrative dashboard which allows them to view user analytics and adjust budgets. On July 1, 2019, three of the largest public libraries in the United States—the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Public Library—discontinued Kanopy, citing unpredictable and unsustainable costs.

Device support Kanopy can be viewed on a computer, mobile device, or television via a web browser supporting HTML video or the Kanopy app for Amazon Fire tablet and Fire Stick, Android, Apple iOS, Chromecast and Roku.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kanopy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kanopy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kanopy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kanopy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kanopy

In research: Kanopy appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kanopy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kanopy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2008 establishments in Australia, 2021 mergers and acquisitions, American companies established in 2008, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kanopy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kanopy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kanopy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kanopy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kanopy in simple terms?

Why does Kanopy matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kanopy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kanopy.