GIPL Reaches 3-Year Agreement with Hoopla

Grand Island, Neb. — The popular digital service Hoopla will be a part of Grand Island Public Library operations for the next three years, but with a few new restrictions.

On Tuesday, November 5, the Grand Island City Council approved a new 3-year agreement, which will cap checkout spending at $80,000 over the duration of the contract. Starting Thursday, November 7, GIPL will implement a budget cap on its Hoopla service in the form of a daily limit of checkouts.

The limits come in response to the growing popularity of Hoopla among library patrons. In recent years, patron interest in Hoopla has driven library costs to the point where it threatens to exhaust the entire digital materials budget. This new daily cap is viewed as a necessity for the library to maintain a sustainable budget for all library programs and operations.

GIPL staff ensures that other programs like Libby, Tumblebooks and Bonus Borrows will not be impacted by this new agreement. Instead, it will allow the library to continue offering all of these services while keeping accrued costs to the city at a manageable level.

“Hoopla has become such a popular and integral part to the library experience in Grand Island,” Grand Island Public Library Director Celine Swan said. “With the city council approving this new agreement, we will be able to continue serving our patrons with this digital platform while maintaining the high quality of the other programs we offer.”

Hoopla has been a free library resource offered to patrons by the library and will continue to be under this new agreement.