I had a demo of the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) this week in one of our supported institutions - one of the first in the UK to subscribe to the service. BoB (developed by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), Cambridge Imaging Systems and Bournmouth University) - provides staff and students with online  access to television and radio programmes from the previous seven days, as well as allowing staff and students to book recordings for broadcasts seven days in advance. Currently free view channels and radio are available. Library staff at Glasgow Met have implemented BoB and I was totally blown away by it.

The best feature in my view is the simple way you can create relevant snippets to use in class or provide for students through learning platforms or other web technologies that they use. This eliminates the need to watch a whole chunk of a programme when only a small relevant clip is really what's wanted. These can be tagged for other BoB users to find and it has the potential to become a huge source of contemporary, highly relevant and engaging video material.

Although it may be considered quite expensive to set up depending on licences that are currently in place, the librarians at Glasgow Met feel that it has had some unforeseen impact by providing a gateway into other library services and digital resources previously under utilised.

You can listen to the RSC's latest podcast about BoB here. For more information go to http://www.boxofbroadcasts.com/