Jacksonville Public Library launches instant streaming services

A library card beginning Monday will allow Jacksonville Public Library customers anytime, anywhere, to borrow digital movies, episodes of television shows, audiobooks and music albums free without any holds or late fees. In partnership with Hoopla Digital, the library system is launching its long-awaited instant streaming services. Hoopla is a service designed specifically for libraries. It’s provided by Midwest Tapes, a vendor that’s been providing services to libraries for about 20 years. [...] Available upon Monday’s launch will be 200,000 titles including about 180,000 music albums, 12,000 audiobooks, 8,000 episodes of television shows and 4,500 movies. New titles will be added continuously. [...] The St. Johns County Public Library became the first in Northeast Florida last month to offer the Hoopla service in a partnership also including Zinio for Libraries. [...] Jacksonville and St. Johns County are among about 450 public library systems nationwide that already have the Hoopla service or are in the process of launching it. The other Florida library systems include Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Charlotte, Lee, Palm Beach and Tampa-Hillsborough counties. - Teresa Stepzinski,The Florida Times-Union [via/web:http://streaming-tv.us]