Getting Started with Box of Broadcasts

video
Database

BoB (Box of Broadcasts)

Box of Broadcasts (or BoB) is an on demand TV & Radio service that The University of Sunderland’s Library Services has subscribed to. This means that our staff and students have access to BoB’s archive and also have the ability to record upcoming programs from over 65 free-to-air channels from the UK and beyond.

Below you’ll find a host of tabs to help you with certain areas of BoB and if you need extra guidance, you can either contact us at the library or check out BoB’s help pages here: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/help.php/faq

When using BoB, you’ll need to log in as a University of Sunderland student or staff member using your user ID and password – the same as you would with the other databases we use. If you’re having any issues working out how to log in, take a look at our video guide here:

The lovely people at BoB have created a video guide to show you how to search, which you can view below.

Aside from the basics, there are also a few tips we’d like to give you for searching. Using the search options, you can limit your search via channel and date of broadcast. So, if you’re looking for a broadcast that was shown on 3rd January 2014 on BBC1, you could choose the “custom” option for both channel and date, so you can select BBC1 and 3rd January 2014. Or, if you don’t have something as specific in mind, you could set your date range to be wider (like “within last year“) and the channel to be “tv only” or “radio only“.

You can also utilize the option to search the transcript of the programs or the titles, or both. This means that if you don’t know the title of what you’re looking for, you can search a topic and as long as it’s mentioned in the program, it will appear in the transcript. Equally, you can search for title only, to exclude search results that merely mention your search term.

You can create your own playlists on BoB, and you also have the ability to create clips of the broadcasts. We’ve made a video guide on how to do that here:

You can also search through playlists. Have a look at our short video guide to find out why you might do that:

Requesting a programme can be incredibly useful. While BoB records many channels and the programmes they show by default, you do have the option to request anything that may not already be recorded. You can view BoB’s video guide on how to do it and where to find your requests here:

If you’re a member of staff and you’re wanting to embed something from BoB onto a page on Canvas, our video guide below will tell you exactly how to do that. Alternatively, you may like to have a look at this guide from Canvas on how to embed.

If you need to cite/reference something you’ve found on BoB, the best way to do it would be to cite it as a TV program or film or radio broadcast, as appropriate.

Remember, you can find out how to cite all of these sources and more at Cite Them Right online under the ‘Media & Art’ menu option. There is even guidance there for how to indicate a specific place in an audiovisual source, such as when you cite a direct quotation.

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