Looking for ways to incorporate a fitness routine into your lifestyle? Did you know that Hoopla offers a variety of health & fitness workout videos to keep you moving? All titles are available immediately with no wait! Access is easy with your library card.
For some sketch comedy laughs you can now enjoy the first full season of Robot Chicken created by Seth Green and Matt Senreich which has won six Emmy Awards.
Or maybe you want something entertaining to watch with your kids – then look no further than the movie adaptation of The Paper Bag Princess.
If you want something a little more educational for your children’s viewing pleasure Hoopla also currently hasMartin Luther King, Jr.made byWonderscape Education.
Don’t forget to browse through all of Hoopla’s current Bonus Borrows to see what other audiobooks, ebooks, and music you can enjoy right now!
Hoopla Digital and OverDrive have recently announced a few updates that will be extremely helpful to many patrons.
Here are the changes:
Hoopla is now available on Chromecast. Stream all of your favorite Hoopla movies and shows right to your TV! Using Chromecast, a device that plugs into the HDMI port on many TVs, patrons can cast borrowed video titles onto a larger screen right from the Hoopla App on their phone or tablet.
Hoopla is updating its iOS app. These updates will be available in the next few weeks.
Content tabs will now appear on the main screen, which will allow for faster discovery and quicker access to content.
The Browse feature will combine genres and collections and will assist patrons in finding all titles related to a collection of interest.
A trending search feature will be added to show patrons the most relevant search terms. This will help make their searching easier!
Quicker download speed in the iOS app! It will be easier for patrons to now when the download of a borrow item is complete.
An updated favorites feature: Grouped by content kind an artist, making it easier to find.
Updated help screen.
OverDrive will change “Bookshelf” on the OverDrive site to “Checkouts” on December 15. This is a major point of confusion that we covered in a previous post. This new update should alleviate the confusion between a user’s bookshelf on the website and their bookshelf in the OverDrive app.
It’s that time of year again. Pumpkin spice lattes make way for peppermint mochas. Leaves riot all over the sidewalk, bright carpets of scarlet and gold. The nights grow long and dark. But most of all, as sure as Thanksgiving follows Halloween, it’s time for your early birdie patrons to check out all the holiday music on your shelves, leaving you in the lurch when everybody else is ready to start rocking around the Christmas tree.
Time to go digital!
Still from A Charlie Brown Christmas, copyright Charles Schultz/United Features Syndicated 1965.
Freegal and Hoopla are your best bets for sing-along holiday cheer. Here are a few search tips and content examples.
For a broad search, select “genre” from the top bar, then “holiday” from the genre sidebar on the results page.
To narrow it down a bit, try keyword searches for terms like “Christmas,” “holiday,” “klezmer,” etc. in the search box. Make sure your drop-down menu is set to either “Albums” or “Songs” for best results.
You can also choose “Advanced Search” at the top of the page, set the genre to “Holiday,” and use “Search All” as your default. This search gives the most visually friendly layout, and easiest results browsing.
Some cool finds:
Let’s Celebrate Kwanzaa, Peter Pan Kids
Christmas Music by Dogs and Cats, The Christmas Critters
Jazz Music for Thanksgiving Dinner, Disembogue Records
Hoopla’s search interface is easier to navigate, but less precise.
A keyword search for “Christmas” will bring up a wealth of titles.
Filter by “music,” then select any title.
Each title has suggested tags for “similar items.” Selecting these will take you to comprehensive lists of “holiday titles,” “Christmas titles,” etc
More interesting results:
Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever
The Karaoke Channel: It’s Thanksgiving!
The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer Nutcracker for Chanukah
Although it’s fun to point out novelties and curiosities, rest assured there’s a wide variety of music, from the fun and lighthearted to the sober and tasteful, for everyone to stream or download. Take a few minutes to explore on your own, and report back on what you find in the comments section.
