Welcome to the fourth installment of Hoopla Half-Dozen! This time, we’re heading to South Carolina to check in with the York County Library. We’ll hear from Donna Andrews, Reference Services Manager, as she shares her Hoopla insights and how the library is connecting with its community in meaningful ways. Plus, discover how Hoopla is helping the library reduce patron wait times while saving thousands of dollars—a win for both access and efficiency!
Click the arrow next to each question to reveal the answer.
1. What is your library’s biggest point of pride?
This year marked York County Library’s 24th annual Patchwork Tales Storytelling Festival, a proud tradition established in 1996 to promote reading and literacy through storytelling and cultural arts. This beloved event features award-winning national and local storytellers, musicians, and activities for all ages. After a brief hiatus in 2012, community enthusiasm brought the festival back stronger than ever, and it continues to offer free admission and one-of-a-kind performances for the whole family.
2. What do your patrons most frequently comment on regarding their experience with Hoopla?
Many of our patrons immediately notice the vast quantity of digital audiobooks available on Hoopla. Even if they must wait for a Flex title, they often find many others available to borrow immediately. When patrons realize just how many instant borrow items are available, they’re genuinely surprised. They also appreciate the longer three-week loan period for Instant borrows versus two weeks for Flex titles and items on our other digital platform, and they enjoy the variety of formats available—including audiobooks, eBooks, TV shows, movies, and music.
3. What is your long-term vision for your digital collection, and how do you see it evolving to meet the needs of your community?
As digital usage grows, our goal is to continue expanding access to diverse and in-demand digital materials for all ages, balancing popular, high-circulating titles with educational content. We also want to increase awareness of digital resources through outreach and staff training so that more patrons can take advantage of everything Hoopla and our Virtual Library have to offer.
4. What have you learned as a Hoopla partner library that can help other libraries maximize their experience?
The great thing about Hoopla Digital is that there is something for everyone. It offers audiobooks, eBooks, TV shows, movies, and music for every age group. While York County Library limits the number of Instant borrows to eight per month, Flex borrows are endless, with five at a time. BingePasses also allow patrons to enjoy as many episodes or issues as they want within seven days. That’s an amazing amount of content.
5. How has Flex and holds relief impacted your library?
If a Flex title has a holds queue and is also available as an Instant borrow, it helps tremendously. We have a ratio of eight holds to one copy in our digital collections. The holds relief feature in Hoopla is terrific—it shortens the patron’s wait time, charges the library only the cost of the Instant borrow, and saves us from buying more copies at full price. Over a 12-month period we have saved $11,000.
6. Are there any genres or languages on Hoopla that have especially helped bolster your patrons’ services?
Our audiobook listeners are by far our biggest group of Hoopla users. In addition, we know many patrons appreciate the Christian fiction and nonfiction titles available. Other popular genres include fantasy, science fiction, and BingePass. It’s also a bit of a surprise that German materials circulate well, along with several other non-English languages. Given space constraints in our buildings, I’m not sure how we could shelve other language materials physically, so Hoopla is very helpful.
About the York County Library
York County Library (YCL) serves York County, South Carolina, with a Main Library in Rock Hill, four branch locations, a digital branch, and outreach services offering books, digital resources, educational programs, and internet access. Key services include literacy programs for all ages, a 24-hour Virtual Library, tech tutoring, mobile hotspots, and a mobile app. Signature literacy programs include the Summer Learning and Winter Reading Challenges, Patchwork Tales Storytelling Festival, Genealogy & Family History Expo, and LibraryCon, a family-friendly comic & pop culture convention.
