The Bartlesville Public Library isn’t just a place to house physical forms of books and videos anymore, although it still does that, too. Located at 600 S.E. Johnstone Ave., BPL continuously updates its services and programs to meet today’s ever-growing digital and technology needs. Its latest program available to the public is the digital media service Hoopla, which allows card holders to borrow items with no waiting. Library Director Shellie McGill explains the service in this week’s edition of Director’s Cut.
City Beat: What is Hoopla?
McGill: Hoopla, which we implemented Nov. 1, is one of the fastest-growing services that our library provides. Essentially, it allows patrons to borrow a vast array of digital items, from ebooks, comic books and audiobooks to TV shows, movies and music — there are about a million things out there that you can borrow — and never have to wait.
Is it different from digital services the library already offers?
We currently offer Overdrive and Libby for digital book reading and Freegal for music, and of course these services will continue to be available. How they differ from Hoopla is that these services are “one user at a time,” and Hoopla has concurrent usage statistics so an unlimited number of people can borrow that same book or item at one time. So, with Hoopla, there is no waiting and no “holds.”
Will Hoopla work on the typical digital devices?
Yes, it will. We have ebooks, which you could read on your tablet, phone or computer. You can check out audio and books and listen. There are comic books, TV, movies and music. They have a really nice, robust children’s program out there also, as well as items in Spanish and other languages, so it meets that need as well.
How is the service accessed?
It’s really easy and something you can stream your tablet or desktop browser or on your mobile app. You can Chromecast them, you could use Roku, or you could use Amazon Alexa. You can use your Amazon apps and your Android Auto.
Is there a time limit for borrowed items?
The usage periods are 21 days for the books, 72 hours for the videos, and a week for music.
How do you get it?
All you have to have is a library card. (If you don’t already have one, you can get an online digital card without even leaving your home.) Then you can go to www.hoopladigital.com and download the app or you can use your Android device and use the app store and the Google Play store. It’s as easy as putting in your email address, your library card number and your password. Then you have your account.
Is there a limit to the number of things that can be borrowed?
There is a limit of five borrows per month. We had to pick that number because we had to be able to afford it. So we may be able to increase that in the future, if we see that we have more resources available. But we think five is enough, especially for those still using Overdrive and Libby and Freegal
Any closing thoughts?
We are excited to offer Hoopla to Bartlesville, and we truly hope everyone will love this service. It’s a trendy, on-task service that we think will have applications for literally everyone who consumes digital media. We encourage everyone to try it and let us know what they think.