New electronic library service for PWC library card holders starts April 11

Prince William County Public Library System is offering a new, free, downloadable, mobile electronic service with 300,000 music albums and 9,000 audio book titles, television shows and e-comics. It’s called Hoopla, and it will be available to library card holders starting on Monday, April 11.

Hoopla will work in any way people want to use it, said Library Services Administrator Jean Ross. “It will work on Android devices. It will work on Apple devices. It will work on a PC, but the best way to do it is do it as an app; and you do that through your phone where you have the ability to go to the app store and choose the Hoopla app. You can choose to stream or download when you’re using the mobile environment.”

Unlike other e-book services, Hoopla can be used at the same time other users have a particular title checked out, Ross said.  “Anybody can use it all the time. So, that means if someone else is using that e-book, you’ll still be able to access it. It is a simultaneous download environment. If you’re used to our other e-services, such as Overdrive, it’s a little different than that and a little better in many ways. Overdrive is one-at-a-time just like a library book. If there are 10 copies, 10 people can use it. If there’s one, one person can use it.”

Another good thing, Ross said, is that Hoopla is virtually unlimited in how long items can be checked out. Periodic renewal is required with a library card number.  “In terms of how long you can keep the items that you have checked out, there are variations based on what particular type of format you’ve checked out… your movies and TV shows you keep for three days and your e-books three weeks, just like a physical book you would check out.”

People who check out an item will notice that it is automatically checked back in when the time expires, but they can turn around and check it out again immediately, Ross said.  “You have plenty of time. You never have to part with them because you can just keep checking them out.”

Hoopla allows people to check out 10 items per month, but 10 check outs per month gives more options than other available services, Ross said. “While you may be used to iTunes where one song counts as one, in the case of Hoopla, it’s a whole album. Users could check out several albums and still have access to books, e-comics, movies and television shows. You have lots and lots of options for what you can do with your allocation or your quota for each month.”

Hoopla is available by downloading the Hoopla Digital app through the App Store or Play Store on a mobile device or at http://www.hoopladigital.com through a computer web browser. Users will need their library card number and library card PIN to create an account. People can sign up early but won’t see any account credits until April 11.