At LPPL, we know the summer is a busy time. With summer camps and family vacations, it can be hard to find the time to drop by your favorite branch. Just because you’re out of town doesn’t mean you can’t access LPPL’s vast selection of books, movies, TV shows, comic books, music, and audiobooks. We have access to Hoopla, a digital content subscription service, available to all LPPL cardholders for free. Hoopla is just like your favorite library, just digital. To use Hoopla, all you need is a digital device (smartphone, tablet, or computer), a valid library card, and an email address.
There are two ways to access Hoopla. From your smart phone or tablet, download the blue Hoopla app via Google Play or the App Store. Next, provide a library card number, an email address, and password to set up your account. Hoopla can also be accessed by from LPPL’s website (www.lafourche.org). On the home page, click on the purple circle labeled Digital Library. The digital library will take you to our digital resources page. Next, click on the box labeled Hoopla—it should be towards the middle of the page. Once you get to Hoopla’s main page, all you have to do is create an account by providing your library card number, an e-mail address, and a password. Once you’ve set up your account, you can borrow up to 8 titles a month. Hoopla works similar to checking out a physical item. If you need more time with a title, you can renew it. The renewal will count as one of your 8 titles borrowed. If you don’t have Wi-Fi, that’s not a problem. Just download the titles over Wi-Fi at your local library, and enjoy them at your leisure. Once you are done with the title, you can return it by clicking the Return Now button. Hoopla also automatically returns the titles, so you don’t have to worry about late fees.
Hoopla is user friendly and customizable. From the settings tab, you can customize genres that interest you. Hoopla uses these selections to recommend titles you may enjoy. Not sure what you want to download next? You can also browse by item (TV series, ebooks, comics, music, movies, and audiobooks). In addition to browsing settings, Hoopla also has the option for parents to filter the displayed content for their children. From the settings menu, under Account, parents can toggle the Kids Mode feature on or off. My personal favorite feature is the zoom for graphic novels. When you read a graphic novel on Hoopla, the app will zoom in on each frame, so you don’t have to resize every time you swipe forward. For more information, or to schedule a one-on-one Hoopla demo, visit your library or give us a call.
- Katie, Area Librarian