We all know eBooks, eAudiobooks, and eMagazines are only becoming more popular. But the way publishers and vendors have designed their services to take advantage of this has become an issue that is impacting libraries all over the country. This is affecting us too, and we will have to adjust our Libby and hoopla holds and check-out limits to rein in rising costs later this year.
These choices are the result of quantitative and qualitative research, and we acknowledge that patrons may be upset at the change. We are offering three drop-in sessions you can attend to learn more about the reason this is happening, what the changes are, and what you can do support patrons. A recording will also be available.
Event details
Below are the session dates and times with links to the Teams meetings.
Libby’s latest update introduces a prompt to users when they borrow, place a hold, or add a “Notify Me” tag to a title in a language different from the one they have set as their app preference.
The goal of this feature is to reduce instances of accidentally borrowing or requesting books in a language they aren’t familiar with. This is especially helpful when a title’s language may not be clear from the cover image (which is often!).
If the user selects “Yes, I Can Read It” from the prompt, Libby will complete the action they were taking. If the user doesn’t want the title in that language, Libby will try to find it in the language the user speaks based on app preferences and past language confirmation prompts.
Not only will this help users to avoid checking out or requesting items they can’t read, it will also hopefully prevent library selectors from having to wade through accidental requests in other languages, and be assured that any that do come through are deliberate!
It’s that time of year again where avid gardeners are planning out their summer designs. Did you know that Libby and Hoopla has a large collection of Gardening materials?
Ready to hear a scary story involving two fantastic digital resources that are perfect for instigating Halloween fun?
It was a dark and stormy-uh…morning…when the library patron walked into their local library. They were there to check-out their favorite Halloween movie. When they approached the circulation desk they saw…A LIBRARIAN! No, something scarier…a TECHNICAL SERVICES LIBRARIAN!
This feels like an overreaction.
Anyway, they asked for help finding the movie but to their horror they couldn’t quite remember the title! It was based on a book written by Anne Rice. Brad Pitt was in the movie along with…Jonah Hill? No, you’re thinking of Moneyball. Did Anne Rice write Moneyball?
The patron’s movie plans were getting slashed right before their eyes until they were reminded of IMDB.com, the exact resource they needed — linked right there on their library’s website. The Internet Movie Database provides information on films, television series, and online streaming content. The patron was able to figure out the movie they were looking for and they found information about the cast, production crew, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and reviews!
Yeah, I remember it being a 7.5 too.
They also learned through IMDB.com that Interview with the Vampire was recently re-VAMP-ed into a TV series. That’s going on the binge watch list. As the patron was checking out, they remembered their Interview with the Vampire themed Halloween party. That’s tonight! They meant to grab a copy of the original movie soundtrack! Surely, getting ahold of this item was going to be a hassle.
Oh no! The narrator was conveniently wrong for the sake of proving a point!
The patron was reminded of hoopla, the free resource through their library where they can stream all sorts of digital media like music, audio books, e-books, movies, TV and comics. They can stream this soundtrack directly from their computer or phone! They even found some Halloween e-books to read to their children after a fun night of trick-or-treating.
The library patron left with exactly what they were looking for and more, thanks to IMDB.com and hoopla. Both of which can be found on your very own library website. Scary stories don’t usually get endings as happy as this one. What a twist!
