JUNE 2016 | 25TH EDITION
LIBRARY UPDATE WE SPEAK LIBRARY, TO SIMPLIFY THE FUTURE Ask and you shall receive, my friends! We at Midwest Tape only work with libraries. We continuously strive to listen to and learn from our customers, as we work to develop and consistently enhance and improve the services we provide to meet the needs you share with us. hoopla digital is no different. Technology, however, continues to evolve at an extremely rapid pace, making our communications with you even more necessary and important. As hoopla evolves to meet the changing demands of the industry, your community and library patrons, we use avenues such as our blog and social media to keep you informed and engaged. Many of you have shared that you would prefer to have this information delivered to you personally, as opposed to having to source multiple outlets for information. For this reason,
we have opted to bring back your hoopla digital newsletter! While we will continue to maintain our blog and Courtney’s Corner for ongoing engagement, we plan to bring everything together as one package and deliver it to you in newsletter form every other month! Here in our newsletter, you will find information about the development of Kids Mode, view recent updates in our “Tech Talk” section, take a walk through our content additions in our New & Notable Content section as well as find links to our most current marketing collateral for your library’s use…designed to help you reach your patrons and community with news about hoopla digital!
KIDS MODE! SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN’S LIBRARIANS Probably one of the most important enhancements to the hoopla digital service this year has been the development of Kids Mode - a multi-format, digital media experience designed especially for kids and their families, as requested by children’s librarians throughout North America. Our hope in providing hoopla for kids is that we instill in children a love for all their local library can provide, and that a learning and growing experience takes place along the way.
In addition to Kids Mode, we wanted to better reach and better support children’s librarians with our Marketing efforts, as well. Recently, we provided our libraries a full children’s package,
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which included a Children’s Look Book, mini-lookbooks, posters, and shelf-talkers. Our hope is that these materials will assist our children’s librarians in sharing this great service with families that visit the library. With so many eBook, audiobook, and even comics titles as alternative reading, hoopla is also geared up this year to help our children’s librarians get summer reading programs off to a running start! We've even developed a support theme and digital communication
materials and mechanisms for you to use in encouraging your patrons to make reading an active part of their active summer months! In need of more support or marketing collateral? Want to access our new Summer Reading shelf-talkers and activity pages for kids?! Check out the links to the right to access our digital assets! MARKETING DROPBOX
SUMMER READING
CHILDREN’S CAMPAIGN
TECH TALK 2016 has been an exciting year of development at hoopla digital. In addition to having added features such as Kids Mode, we have rolled out a handful of new enhancements and improvements to continuously better the user experience. Take a look at some of the featured enhancements and improvements that have taken place thus far this year on the list below! ANDROID - A redesign of title details across all formats took place, which will help a user identify whether a title has subtitles or closed captioning. This redesign also provides links to artists, directors, actors, etc. to assist users in identifying additional content that might be of interest. - A New Trending Search Feature was added under “Search,” to assist users in keeping up with current trends and content relevant to current times. - A Submit Feedback feature was added in order to provide patrons an avenue through which they may share feedback and suggestions directly with our development team! - The Download process was made much clearer, across all content, to provide patrons greater visibility of this process. iOS
- Per popular patron request, we have made our audiobook controls bigger and have moved them away from the scrubber bar to enhance the listener experience. - We have added a “Related Content” area near the “Similar Titles” section, to assist individuals in locating like titles that they may also enjoy. - We have added a “Hide History” option for those patrons who choose not to see their borrowed history. - Video Detail pages now display whether a title has subtitles or dubbed language options. - Parental Advisory indicators have been added on search and browse screens for music as on the title detail, which will assist your patron in quickly being able to identify the title version of interest.
WEBSITE - We have added a “Related Content” area in … to assist individuals in locating like titles that they may also enjoy. - A Submit Feedback feature was added in order to provide patrons an avenue through which they may share feedback and suggestions directly with our development team! 2 | Library Update
NEW & NOTABLE CONTENT We know that our libraries strive to offer everything they possibly can to everyone that steps foot into the library or accesses their virtual library. With the many one copy, one user platforms in the marketplace, offering an extremely broad collection takes time (and funds!) to grow. The beauty in providing your community access to hoopla digital is that your patrons have instant access to well over 500,000 titles - across all formats, genres and audiences at any time. From day one, you have immediate access to this depth and breadth of our collections without having to invest a fortune. Since we have a vested interest in your patron satisfaction, we are consistently growing our collections – every day! Take a look at some of the New & Notable Content we have added in 2016: eBook
- Open Road Media
Audiobook - HarperCollins - Harlequin Video
- BroadGreen Pictures • A Walk in the Woods
Comics - Archie Comics
COMING SOON: TECH UPDATES TO WATCH FOR In the coming months, please be on the lookout for even more updates, as we plan to roll out a refreshed website for PC users. Our new look will further enhance discovery and provide a much more intuitive interface for your website users. On both our website and Android app devices, we plan to soon roll out the option for patrons to hide history, as we have for our Apple users.
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