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Salt Lake County Library Now Offering Digital Movies

Hoopla Digital

The Salt Lake County Library is now offering free online and mobile access to videos, music and audiobooks.  All you need is a library card to log in.

The Salt Lake County Public Library has partnered with Hoopla Digital based in Ohio to offer about 10,000 movies and TV series. This week, the county added the same number of e-audio books. Salt Lake County was one of 10 initial libraries that helped to beta-test the Hoopla service since June. There are now about 20 library systems around the country using the service. Library spokesperson Greg Near says there is clearly a demand for this type of content.

“The goal with Salt Lake County Library is not only to provide the highest level of customer service, but also to provide the materials that our customers are looking for, in the formats that they want them in,” Near says. “Right now, we’ve seen this explosion in interest in e-books, e-audio books, and streaming video.”

Patrons can play downloaded content as often they like for 3 days before it is automatically disabled. Near says it costs the library between 99 cents to $2.99 per title downloaded, so patrons are limited to 10 titles per month. A hoopla link is available at slcolibrary.org. With a library card, patrons can create an account, install the required plugin called Widevine, and begin streaming.

Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ
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