What's New

Get Up to Speed with a Review of July's hoopla News

As the calendar turns from July to August, summer is quickly coming to a close. I find myself asking where the year has gone, frequently, as I take a few minutes to slow things down and catch up. July seems a blur already, so I wanted to take the time to re-share all of our blog stories from the month through the links below:

We hope you and your staff have had a great summer. As you’re wrapping up your summer reading programs, and kicking off back-to-school programs, check in with us here on the library blog in August for all of the exciting developments in the world of hoopla.

Managing Your Digital Service: A New Budgeting Webinar from hoopla

As part of our continuing efforts to assist in training and educating our partner libraries, we have completed a video webinar, “hoopla in Budget.” Communicating recent budgeting tool updates, and gathering feedback for future budgeting enhancements is a primary goal of this video.

hoopla has various budget options available to help libraries tailor the service to their individual needs. We fully encourage partner libraries to use the budget tools and this video to educate and empower their staff, and to set patron usage and expectations.

 This video will help you manage:

  • Circulation caps: Customized to control patron access and align with individual library budgets. (i.e. 12 items per month)
  • Content Offering: Also customized to reflect the library’s offering of content, and aligned with unique library budgets. (i.e. TV shows, audiobooks, eBooks, etc…)
  • Budgeting Control: A formula for obtaining desired spend for the year. Project and offer customized recommendations for circulation cap and which formats libraries offer.

Our hope is that this video not only educates, but helps spark your digital strategy for 2015 and beyond. Your library is at the forefront of the digital evolution for your patrons, and being prepared financially is an important part of this evolution.

Important Update for Windows Users and Google Chrome

A recent update to Windows has potentially created issues for hoopla users using the 64-bit version of Google Chrome. To solve this issue, we suggest the following steps:

1. The user will need to run Windows Update to fix the issue. 
2. If there are no updates available, users must reboot their PC.

This update is extremely important for users that have not run Windows Update recently. In case your IT team or staff did not catch this update, this information could be extremely important to your patrons and library. If you or your staff has any questions, please e-mail our support team: info@hoopladigital.com. 

Our Mobile App Update for July is Now Available!

To go along with the update to hoopladigital.com, we have recently rolled out updates to our iOS and Android mobile apps as well. These updates have many “under-the-hood” enhancements, and there are some new usability features worth mentioning as well.

Easy Closing of Audio Player (iOS)

 When listening to an audiobook or a music album, you can continue to browse hoopla for more titles to borrow; or, even add to your favorites list if you have exhausted your borrows for the month. When continuing to use hoopla, stopping audio playback is as easy as tapping the “X” button in the player at the bottom of the screen.   

A-Z Browsing of Genres (Android/iOS)

An additional sorting option has also been added to our genre and tag browsing. After selecting a genre or tag for more in-depth browsing, users can sort by Popular, Newest, and an new option, A-Z by title, is now available. This new filtering option allows users another level of content discoverability when using the mobile app.  Refer to these screenshots from our iOS and Android apps display:

TV: Suggest Next Episode (iOS)

When knee-deep in a TV series, sometimes you just have to watch the next episode right away. With our 3.3 app update, our iOS app will now suggest to you the next episode in that series immediately after finishing an episode. Quick access to the next episode keeps users engaged and ready for the next episode.

These features are available exclusively on our mobile apps. You’ll notice that some of the features are also present on hoopladigital.com. As we have previously mentioned, our goal is to provide our PC/Mac users with the chance to be able to really dig in into the content that interests them most. Our app is designed with the mobile user in mind; a user that knows exactly what they are looking for, and wants to quickly get into the content they already have borrowed.

Our team continues to listen to feedback and continues to improve hoopla to truly be of service to our library partners. Of these enhanced features, which would be your new the best new feature? Let us know what features you find yourself using and sharing with your patrons!

Featured Libraries Returns with Arlington Public Library, Lambton County and More!

After a brief hiatus, our Featured Libraries post has returned! Summer reading programs are in full swing at our libraries, and we have some great examples of hoopla partner libraries going above and beyond to reach their patrons. The summer is a great time to communicate the services available at your library, and our Featured Libraries have done just that.

Arlington Public Library

Photo courtesy of Shari Henry on Twitter @nahurry

Photo courtesy of Shari Henry on Twitter @nahurry

Our friends at APL recently launched with patrons in June, and Shari Henry went on local ABC affiliate ABC7 to discuss the launch. APL Director Diane Kresh also wrote up a beautiful story on her blog as well, filled with links to personal recommendations. They also had a launch blowout with cookies, balloons and more. I’m getting hungry just writing this blog!

APL has taken a hugely successful launch and turned that into over 900 registered hoopla users in just under a calendar month. 

 

McHenry Public Library District

Doubling down is usually reserved for the blackjack table, but MPLD has “doubled down” for the entire summer! During a special, summer promotion hoopla users at MPLD are able to borrow 10 titles instead of the usual 5. To celebrate this promotion, they have put up a special graphic on their website, along with sandwich board-esque signage and a hoopla flag in their library building. 

Bucks County Library System

BCLS delivers in a very big way, with their newly adorned delivery trucks. These trucks can be seen across Bucks County, Pennsylvania delivering materials to their 18 locations. “Try Something New” is the slogan for this library, and they have definitely done so with these trucks!

Lambton County Library

In Ontario, Lambton County Library has some very talented patrons in their community. At their launch event, “The hoopla at your library song!” was performed by Cory and Ben Sitek. This smooth, jazzy song is a great example of unique events held by libraries during their launch. Students from St. Patrick’s Catholic High School also put together real-life scenarios with the theme “hoopla Might Have the Answer.”  Students fully produced this video, which further showcases the talented members of the Lambton County community.

An Update to Usability and Browsing Exclusively on hoopladigital.com

Continuing to evolve and improve the hoopla service continues to be one of our key drivers in 2015. Recently, we rolled out some updates to hoopladigital.com, to improve the overall experience for users across all formats. Here are some additional details on what to expect the next time you use hoopladigital.com:

Switching Formats

Users now have the ability to switch the format they are browsing without returning to the main hoopla menu. For example, if you’re browsing movies, you can now switch over to another format, such as audiobooks seamlessly. This will help users quickly access additional formats without an extra step in the process.

 

 

Hover-Over Menu

Borrowing and adding to favorites while browsing through content has never been easier. Now, when hovering over a title, a menu will appear with a brief snippet of the synopsis along with Borrow and Add to Favorites buttons. 

 

Genres/Collections on Format Menu

Joining the already present Recommended, Featured and Popular selection line up on each format are buttons for Genres and Collections. Clearly labeled and easier access to genres will be a huge asset to users that are looking to access the genres menu.    

A-Z Browsing of Genres

An additional sorting option is has also been added after selecting a genre to browse in-depth. In addition to sorting by Popular and Newest, an A-Z by title option is now available.

These newer features are available exclusively on hoopladigital.com. We wanted to provide our PC/Mac users with the chance to be able to really dig in into the content they are the most interested in. Most of the new enhancements are geared towards a web-only experience, but could find their way to an app release in the future, based on user feedback.

Our team continues to listen to feedback and continues to improve hoopla to truly be the service of our library partners. If you have additional suggestions or feedback, be sure to share that feedback with your hoopla Coordinator or your account executive.