Although it gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marshalltown Public Library will discontinue its subscription to Hoopla — a digital service which provides immediate access to books, movies and music — after Aug. 31.

Library Director Sarah Rosenblum and Public Service and Technology Manager Katie Fink said that while patrons did not have to pay to use Hoopla, the library did. Every time someone checks out a book with the program, the library is charged something. Fink said the charges could range from $0.99 to $3.99, based on the book publisher.

“We don’t get the content on Hoopla,” she said. “We pay the fee each time it’s checked out, even if we covered the cost of the book multiple times over.”

Fink said some of the most popular authors among patrons were also not available on Hoopla.

“There’s only certain publishers available in the selection,” she said. “The most popular authors in our library for adults are James Patterson, John Grisham and Danielle Steel. Those are not available in the Hoopla selection.”

In order to help with the cost, Fink said they set Hoopla limits on how many checkouts people could use each month. The library started with five Hoopla books per person in 2018, raised it to 10 during the pandemic and dropped it back down to six.

“When we added Hoopla, several years before COVID, we had some cushion in our budget,” Rosenblum said. “We thought this would be a tool people would like, another way to deliver content. The first few years, it was $500 or $600 per month, which was doable. During COVID, the usage grew exponentially. It’s gone from $500 or $600 per month to $2,000 per month.”

She said that while it is a popular way for patrons to get content, it was not the best value to the library. The program, which Rosenblum said was a difficult model for public libraries, was no longer sustainable.

Budget

Budget concerns were a factor in shutting down Hoopla. Whether or not the library will face further cuts is currently unknown. Rosenblum said they are waiting to meet with incoming City Administrator Carol Webb, and they want to see what actions the Iowa Legislature takes in January.

“We’re OK,” she said. “We run a very lean operation. We’re really trying to maintain seven-day-a-week service and keep the staff we have, but I can’t make any promises. It’s a tough time. I do worry (about) what’s coming out of Des Moines. But I think we run a lean operation and do a great job for the community.”

After they lost the $250,000 standalone levy from the city when the legislature passed new laws, Rosenblum said the council backfilled the library with LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) funds. However, she said there are a lot of requests for LOST money.

“I hope the community knows we try really hard,” Rosenblum said. “For this community, we have a good budget to respond to people’s needs, but it’s right on the edge. If we were to sustain a big cut, we would have to look at resources. We hope to move forward.”

A challenge is meeting rising costs with a tight budget. Fink said when she began ordering books for the library in 2018, a new adult hardcover book cost between $13 and $17. Now, a book ranges from $17 to $23. The cost of an ebook has increased to $75 for a two-year leasing license.

“It’s gone up quite a bit,” she said.

Rosenblum said the library is trying to find other options to obtain good quality books at cheaper prices. Sometimes Fink will try to purchase from an online seller, and half the time it is not in acceptable condition.

“We try to do a lot of things to do the best we can,” she said.

Like all households and businesses, the Marshalltown Public Library is also dealing with the increase in utility cost. The electricity bill was $30,000 per year, and it is now $45,000.

“We haven’t done anything different,” Rosenblum said. “We’re actually three hours shorter than we used to be. Gas went up quite a bit, too. That’s $9,000. I’m worried because electricity is one of those things that goes up every year.”

Libby

Beginning Sept. 1, the Marshalltown library will primarily use the Libby program, which receives base funding from the state library. Rosenblum said Libby is similar to the library obtaining a physical copy of a book.

“It’s one copy, one license,” she said. “You go on and want to read ‘Where the Crawdads Sing,’ and there’s two people ahead of you. It’s like the physical book. So, Hoopla was nice for instant gratification. We all like instant gratification.”

Fink said the Libby program will also give users the opportunity to read the popular authors, and it is something more patrons utilize.

“The number of users of Hoopla per month was less than the number of people who use Libby per month,” she said.

Rosenblum said another aspect of Libby is two lanes people can use to check out a book. For example, one popular book is “Eruption” by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. There might be 300 people waiting for a chance to read it on Libby, and there are 10 copies in the system. Rosenblum said the MPL will provide a shortcut so readers do not have to wait a long time.

“I’ve been doing this 40 years, and it really has just become all about content,” she said. “How do we deliver content to the user?”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.