Local libraries struggle to balance cost of digital services against demand

SANDUSKY — When the CLEVNET library consortium stopped offering Hoopla Digital, the most popular digital library service, almost all public libraries in the Sandusky area faced a choice.Do they spend additional money to continue offering Hoopla to their patrons, or do they drop the service?In every case the Register could learn about, local libraries came up with extra money and kept offering Hoopla.But the experience of using Hoopla has given libraries a lesson on the transition from paper books and other physical objects such as DVDs and audio CDs to the presumed library of the future, which likely will rely on digital materials. CLEVNET is a consortium of 43 library systems in northern Ohio, including Cleveland Public Library and all of the libraries in Erie County.The libraries share a common catalog, making it easy for users in Sandusky, for example, to transfer in movies and books from another library. CLEVNET also provides digital offerings to all of its member libraries, such as the popular Overdrive service, which provides audiobooks and ebooks.Until last month, CLEVNET also provided Hoopla Digital, a service that provides ebooks, audiobooks, music, movies, TV shows and comic books.Hoopla is sometimes considered the best digital library service. Notably, users can check out any item they want, without having to go on a waiting list for popular items. Each patron of a library in the CLEVNET system was allowed 10 checkouts a month.CLEVNET officials didn't return a phone call from Register asking about why it dropped Hoopla, but James Tolbert, director of the Milan-Berlin Library District, said Hoopla refused to give CLEVNET a consortium discount. CLEVNET hadn't raised membership fees to cover the Hoopla cost and found it couldn't afford Hoopla, Tolbert said."The first year, it was somewhere around double what they budgeted for," Tolbert said.So CLEVNET decided to let individual libraries decide whether to keep the service.Tolbert, who said each Hoopla checkout by a patron costs his library an average of $1.77, decided to budget $1,500 to try keeping the service for a year. Each patron is allowed 10 checkouts a month, the same as before, Tolbert said.The Register surveyed other local libraries.Sandusky Library kept Hoopla, but decided to lower the checkout limit to six a month. It budgeted $10,000 for the service for 2017."We evaluated Hoopla use at time of the subscription renewal and found that six downloads served the patrons using this service and contained cost for the library," Carver said in an email.Officials at the Huron, Fremont, Bellevue, Clyde and Vermilion libraries all said they decided to keep the service and continue to allow 10 checkouts a month, although the director of the Birchard Public Library (Fremont, Gibsonburg, Green Springs and Woodville), Pam Hoesman, said the library may not be able to keep to that policy.The library budgeted $500 a month for Hoopla and the money ran out in February. When the money runs out, checkouts on Hoopla are discontinued until the new month begins, she said.Ida Rupp in Port Clinton isn't part of CLEVNET and wasn't affected by CLEVNET's decision. It continues to offer 10 Hoopla checkouts a month.Despite the advantages of Hoopla — it's always on 24-7 from anywhere for a patron looking for something to read or watch — most patrons still don't use it.Sandusky Library has 25,376 cardholders. The library has 781 patrons who have signed up for Hoopla, Carver said.At Ida Rupp Public Library in Port Clinton, which has about 13,600 patrons, about 350 patrons have registered for Hoopla, said Tim Hagen, the library director."Since subscribing to Hoopla, we've attempted advertising it in a variety of ways: our website, social media, word-of-mouth at the front (circulation desk), physical promotional (give away items like bookmarks and coasters) materials, and tying-in Hoopla with other events like our annual Summer Reading Program or Community Read, for instance," Hagen wrote in an email to the Register."Anecdotally, it seems word-of-mouth, via front desk staff speaking with patrons during checkouts and checkins, may be the most effective advertising method," he wrote.Old school library services still have many advantages.Sandusky library patrons, and patrons in Milan-Berlin, can check out up to 50 items at a time.In effect, checkouts are unlimited, as a patron can always stay under the limit by returning some items and then checking out others. Patrons in Sandusky and elsewhere can also transfer in all of the items they want from other CLEVNET libraries.A TV series DVD with 13 episodes counts as one item at the circulation desk, but each Hoopla TV episode counts as one checkout against the monthly limit.Tolbert said that he's found that patrons who try Hoopla really like it."We actually had a very high retention rate," he said. "That's the rate at which someone signs up for the service and comes back to it as well."Similarly, Stephanie Buchanan, the director in Bellevue, didn't want to take away Hoopla, which she said is growing in popularity."People seem to really like it," she said. "I hate to yank away a service we offered."Reach reporter Tom Jackson at jackson@sanduskyregister.com and follow him on Twitter @jacksontom.