July 16, 2014 | 13th Edition
Fun and Learning in Las Vegas So, who won the chocolate taste off at the hoopla happenings Sweet Treat Round Table???? Rachael Vogelsong, Lead Customer Coordinator, declared, “Godiva was the winner over Ghirardelli and the Ice Cream Sundaes put the proverbial cherry on top at this fun Round Table discussion!” The casual environment fostered the exchange of many creative ideas, ranging from thoughts on patron and staff engagement to future enhancements. It also opened up the table to include conversation surrounding potential future plans: world language requests and hoopla expansion plans, just to name a couple. “Look to the future for some of these wonderful ideas to come to be realized with hoopla,” mentioned Elaine Schlagheck, Lead Digital Specialist. All in attendance conveyed to Elaine and Rachael that they had acquired a great deal of knowledge and were departing with their sweet tooth satisfied. One attendee, who had intolerance to dairy and a chocolate allergy to boot, still managed to find goodies to enjoy.
While all this was going on, sweetness was also being discussed by both libraries and publishers out on the convention floor; this time, the focus was the sweetness of success. Listening to their buzz, one couldn’t help but sense the excitement regarding hoopla’s innovative digital platform offering simultaneous use, exposure to both short and long tail titles at all times, and no holds. The entire Sales Team, including National Sales Manager Ed Altwies, reported a great deal of interest that was then realized post conference by the hoopla Coordinators, with an influx of signed agreements. Hunter S. Thompson may have found Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but what hoopla found was nothing but “Fun and Learning.” And, everything considered, we don’t think this will be our “Last Vegas.” library update | 1
FYI: hoopla Developers Make Platform Improvements This month, the hoopla Support Team would like to update you on some recent improvements made to the hoopla platform across our mobile app and library admin site. Please be sure to make note that some of these improvements are the direct result of feedback from you, our hoopla partners. Recent iOS updates: We’ve added variable speed options to the audiobook player. The app can now play audiobooks at the standard 1x speed, 1.25x, or 1.5x speed. During testing, it was found that anything faster than 1.5x speed is a bit distorted. The password reset process has been simplified. Previously, we required users to copy and paste the temporary password a number of times. Now, users simply need to enter the temporary password once before setting a permanent password. All ‘blue’ entries on a title information page can be tapped for additional works in those fields. Example: tap on an actor’s name, and you will be taken to hoopla content relating to that actor.
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Recent Android updates: We’ve made it easier to borrow standalone episodes of TV shows, moving the borrow button to the upper right corner of the title info screen. It’s now similar to how our iOS app behaves. A 30-second rewind button has been added to the audiobook player, widget, and notification. Recent library.hoopladigital.com updates: We’ve implemented library user roles. Admin users can now add additional staff members for the sole purpose(s) of pulling reports and/or building collections. Librarians marked as admin will continue to have full access to settings. A budget rollover feature has been added. This feature allows any unused funds from your monthly budget cap at month’s end to be rolled over to the next month. The goal is to help you keep your allotted funds for hoopla together for an entire fiscal year, rather than operating one month at a time. (NOTE: This feature must be enabled through your hoopla coordinator.) We continue to improve the hoopla platform on an almost constant basis. These few examples are simply an indication of the work our developers are carrying out to enhance hoopla across the board.
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