Residents who hold an Ottawa Public Library card will soon be able to stream or temporarily download popular movies, television shows, documentaries and music on their mobile devices, for free.
Starting Feb. 17, library customers will have access to more than 230,000 popular movies, television shows, and music through Hoopla Digital. By using Access Video on Demand (AVoD), patrons will be able to browse through a collection of more than 13,000 videos and 207,000 video segments of documentaries produced by companies like TED Talks and National Geographic.
“If you think that there are a million people in the city, probably 500,000 of them have library cards, and 230,000 – that’s a lot of titles. And there isn’t a limit on access also, so a whole bunch of people all around the city can be watching the same movie,” says Mary Cavanagh, an information studies assistant professor at the University of Ottawa.
Customers using Hoopla will be able to download or stream up to eight items a month, for up to seven days for music albums and three days for movies. AVoD will have no usage limit.
As a result, there will be no waitlist and no late fees since items will be automatically returned after the borrowing period.
Library card holders will also be able to access Hoopla by downloading the mobile app. Customers will first be asked to create an account using their library card, and they will later use that information whenever they log in.
“So, it’s wherever you have access to the Internet, so you don’t have to be anywhere, you don’t have to be at your home, you can be at the bus stop watching a movie. You can be sitting in my class, you can be watching a movie. I wouldn’t know,” says Cavanagh, laughing.
According to Jennifer Stirling, division manager of content and technology at the library, the demand is quite high for streaming and downloading services such as Hoopla.
“If we benchmark against other libraries, they found that they are an extremely popular service and that once people start to use it, the use just continues to grow, and that’s really consistent with what we are seeing with other digital products,” says Stirling.
“People love to browse that kind of material. It’s like having your own YouTube channel, right? You can just look up almost anything and probably find something interesting to watch,” says Cavanagh.
Stirling says the library will continue to evaluate new platforms and make decisions based on trends and usage.
Still, Cavanagh says libraries have to be “leading edge in terms of technology” while also making sure they are serving people who are just learning how to use it. Libraries “have to cover the whole spectrum of where people are at in their knowledge and capability.”
For instance, George Kodybka uses to the Main library branch in Centretown every day and usually borrows DVDs. He says these new streaming and downloading services sound impressive. Kodybka would use them, he says, but he would probably have to learn how to navigate through them.
On the other hand, Roger Aubrey goes to the Main branch once a week and borrows books on CDs as well as documentaries and films. But he says he would still prefer getting the DVDs.
“Life is just too busy to take on new fields and new learning,” he says. “But I might just use it, I don’t know. It just depends if something’s available only that way and can’t take it any other way, I’m sure I would use it.”