The Deerfield Public Library, which last year added Hoopla, a video streaming service for cardholders, added four Roku machines to its collection Jan. 27 which enables people with older televisions sets to stream entertainment from a variety of sources.
“It makes an older TV a smart TV,” said Judy Hoffman, the library’s outreach coordinator.
Hoffman said the device lets a person stream movies or shows directly from Netflix, Vudu and a variety of other sources as well as bringing news from American networks and Britain’s Sky News directly into the home tube.
Depending on the age of the television, a person connects the media player to the set with either a HDMI hookup or an older form of connector and then uses the Roku remote control to find the viewing of their choice, according to Claire Steiner, the library’s head of adult services.
Steiner said people can check a Roku out for a week and so far the wait has been little to nonexistent since a soft launch with little publicity. That is about to change, but she said people should not worry about a long wait.
“It’s relatively inexpensive,” Steiner said. “If we need to add one we can. It’s only a one-week checkout so you don’t have to wait for a three-week return like with a book. Like (most) of our collection if the hold list gets long we add one.”
Beside Netflix, Vudu and Sky News, Roku brings PBS, PBS Kids, the Smithsonian Channel, Weather Underground, Crackle, Vevo, Disney Channel, All Fitness TV, Allrecipes and c|net into people’s homes, according to the library website.
Steiner said there are more than 250 movies on Vudu including films which came out late last year. She said both Roku and Hoopla also help get titles not possessed by the library.
“You can access things like an interlibrary loan but you don’t have to wait,” Steiner said.
Long a lending source of movies, television shows, music and games, the library added Hoopla a year ago to give its patrons more options, according to Steiner. She said the program has been well accepted.
“It’s like Netflix for libraries,” Steiner said. “It’s a really nice supplement. Like our DVDs it has the newest stuff. You get it the day it is released to the public just like we do but you don’t have to wait. There is no hold list.”
Since the program was launched a year ago, people have watched more than 1,900 movies or television shows on Hoopla, heard more than 1,600 audio books, listened to more than 1,400 items from the music collection and read more than 600 ebooks, according to Hoffman.
Ebooks became part of Hoopla in April, according to Hoffman. She said the collection has 8,000 movies or shows, 21,000 audio books, 275,000 music possibilities and 76,000 ebooks. Steiner said it can be accessed from a smartphone, tablet or computer.
“We see the lines get bigger on the weekends,” Steiner said. “Roku is very binge watchable. People don’t have to check out 10 DVDs at once.”
Weekends are busy, according to Hoffman. She said they account for 30 percent of the library’s open hours during the week but between 41 and 51 percent of its circulation takes place then.
Despite the advent of using the library as a repository of assorted media, Steiner said she does not see the day books vanish from the shelves.
“We’re going to keep expanding it,” Steiner said of the media collection. “We also continue to add books.”
Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press
Twitter: @sadinsteve
