Leadership at the Pella Public Library has announced the Hoopla Digital service will be discontinued, effective October 1st. Director Tina Hertel says although Hoopla offered instant access to a number of ebooks, audiobooks, movies, music, and more, its pay-per-use model had become financially unsustainable. She says this is not unique to Pella, as many libraries across the country have moved away from this model due to its unpredictability and high impact on library budgets.

Hertel provided a summary of the data and information used to reach this decision:
– Smaller Patron Base: approximately 10% of our registered card holders use Hoopla
– Limited Usage: Hoopla circulation makes up 6.7% of all of our overall circulation, print and electronic and within our electronic circulation Bridges/Libby has more than double the circulation than Hoopla
– High Costs: on average, Hoopla accounts for 20-25% of our monthly expenses; most months our Hoopla invoice is higher than our yearly commitment to the Iowa-wide consortial offering of Bridges/Libby
– Content Overlap: Much of the Hoopla content is available through other platforms, such as Bridges/Libby and Kanopy, at a much lower cost
– Leveraging Our Finances: we can apply funds to increase access to other resources, such as Advantage titles in Bridges/Libby or expanding our Kanopy options

In order to help stabilize costs before October 1, the Pella Public Library has reduced the overall Hoopla catalog available. Hertel says they are also launching a Library Learning Series to help with using the variety of library services and resources they offer. Read more about the transition here.