Dear Library Patron:
As a current Hoopla user in Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, or Wyoming county, we are informing you that Hoopla service will end as of October 31, 2025 at 5PM. You will continue to have access to any items checked out prior to that time for the length of the borrowing period.
Hoopla is fully funded through the Northeast Library District which has been running at a deficit since July 1st due to Pennsylvania’s budget impasse. While the decision had been made to end Hoopla service at the end of the 2025-2026 budget year, the budget impasse was the major factor in moving up the end date to Oct 31, 2025.
Although it is free for patrons to use, Hoopla’s cost-per-circulation pricing model means the library gets charged a fee each time an item is checked out. Like many other libraries across the country, we found that this model is not sustainable. This pricing means that each circulation costs the library a specific amount (from $.99-$3.99 depending on the vendor and title). The District set a budget for a 12 month period, which was then divided by library, by month and by day in order to ensure there was money each day for patron usage. As popularity rose, we ran down that amount more and more quickly and some patrons were locked out of borrowing just a few minutes after midnight each day.
What we have learned over these years is that no pay-per-use pricing model is really sustainable for a library. The more popular the resource becomes, the less we can afford it. After years of trying to sustain it through other means and working with the vendors, we no longer can offer products that are priced this way. We are not alone in facing this dilemma; library systems across the country have also cancelled “pay-per-use” streaming services. By ending this service, we will be expanding access to more digital materials and improve wait times on popular titles on the Libby platform.
To prepare for the end of Hoopla, if you need a list of the titles you’ve checked out, you will need to either write down the titles or take a screenshot of the items in your hoopla history. Because of Pennsylvania patron privacy laws, the District does not have access to this information.
Find your checkout history by going to the hoopla app; select “My hoopla”; select “History”; write down or take a screenshot of the information.
If there are titles you would like to see in Libby that aren’t available currently, please use the Notify Me option within Libby to tell us about eBooks, eAudiobooks, and comics not in the Library. If the item is purchased, the system will place you on hold.
If you have further questions, please contact Michele Legate, District Consultant, 570-795-4325 or Scott Thomas, District Administrator, 570-348-3000.
We thank you for using the library and hope to see you in Libby!
The Northeast Library District |