Instructional Media Collections and Services

Located in UCLA’s Powell Library, the Instructional Media Collections and Services (IMCS) provides access to available course-required physical and digital media for UCLA instructors, teaching assistants and students in classroom settings, and when available, for non-UCLA academic researchers.

IMCS circulates physical media to instructors and teaching assistants for teaching in classrooms and for individual viewing in the Powell Library Instructional Media Lab. IMCS also arranges access to digital versions, as long as they meet UCLA Library’s Audiovisual Materials Access Policy.

As a reminder and before submitting a request, please check the Library’s existing streaming collections and subscription databases, as the content you need may already be available:

Streaming Video Collections: Narrative, Documentary and Performance - Film and Video Collections - Research Guides at UCLA Library(opens in a new tab)

Film and Video Collections - Research Guides at UCLA Library(opens in a new tab)

As outlined in UCLA Library’s Audiovisual Materials Access Policy:

For materials that cannot be streamed via the Library, the following access options may be available:

• On-site viewing in the Powell Library Instructional Media Lab.

• On-site viewing in the Arts and Music Libraries (see a full list of viewing/listening locations(opens in a new tab)).

• Check out a physical copy for viewing in an alternative location. The Library lends out a limited number of optical drives to facilitate viewing elsewhere.

• For course reserves, the instructor may create a playlist or assign titles for rental, purchase or subscription to a commercial source as course materials.

• The user conducts a risk assessment about their planned usage and is responsible.

Search the IMCS collection catalog(opens in a new tab) by title, format, subject matter, director or other terms.

UCLA Faculty, Teaching Assistants, Students and Staff

All materials from the IMCS collection are provided free of charge to regularly scheduled UCLA classes. Requests for purchases of new media for on-campus, in-classroom use are processed upon receipt of a completed and approved Media Request Form(opens in a new tab).

UCLA Library encourages requests for course reserves to be submitted well in advance to help ensure adequate time for preparing course reserves as well as for purchasing new materials, a process that can take up to several weeks or months.

Materials may be viewed in the Powell Library Instructional Media Lab by making a request preferably three business days in advance.

UCLA Extension and UCLA Community

UCLA Extension instructors and other organizations and individuals in the campus community may borrow materials from the IMCS collection. Extension instructors’ requests must be placed through a departmental representative.

Off-campus

No IMCS materials may be loaned or rented to any off-campus venues.