We received 14,504 responses and over 5,000 written comments, a rate of response that absolutely floored us.
We are reading all of the comments, and will publish the complete survey results and findings this fall.
Here’s what we can tell you now:
Will print materials (books) be cut?
No. Arlington Public Library is committed to providing popular collections (bestselling books, DVDs, children’s books) and maintaining the lowest possible wait times. This survey asked about collections that have different usage patterns and cost structures than physical items such as books.
Is the budget cut now in effect?
Yes. As of July 1, 2018, the County is in the FY 2019 budget year. The Library collections budget has been reduced by 17 percent, or $250,000. Decisions on how to absorb this reduction will be made throughout the coming year and we will continue to keep you informed.
How will the Library make decisions about what materials to cut?
The survey will help inform our decisions but it is not the sole factor. We will also look at usage, cost, and what overlap exists among collections. Again, please stay tuned for more information.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Arlington Public Library. It’s you who make us who we are.
Diane
I am so disappointed to hear you are cutting Hoopla. My daughter and I use its audiobook collection several times a week. The beauty of Hoopla is there is no wait list. With Overdrive and RBDIGITAL there frequently are wait lists. Because my daughter has a Milan dyslexia, she is a reluctant reader. Consequently, access to digital audiobooks through Hoopla has exposed her to far more books than she would have otherwise been.
Also, other than Loudoun County, no library with reciprocity subscribes to Hoopla. Whereas several other local libraries with reciprocity do subscribe to RBDIGITAL,
I do want to thank you for having the user survey. I appreciate being able to participate in it.
I am aware of the Library’s increased competition from Hoopla, Redbox, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. I subscribe to three of the four myself. But those other sources charge fees and, more importantly, don’t offer physical (hard) copies of audio-books. I travel a lot by car and your DVD collection has given me so many hours and years of enjoyable listening. (I do not like the digital formats and don’t use them.) Also, I am a very slow reader so audio DVDs enable me to “read” both fiction and nonfiction books.
I gladly would pay fees to rent your audio-books.
Thank you for listening to a loyal patron.
just started using hoopla and it is my go to for immediate readings and sort by author and title and then I stream over my bluetooth speakers to listen in the morning.
Thank you for keeping Value Line. This is and has truly been a valuable and long-term community resource, ideal for libraries.
Very disappointed that Hoopla will be discontinued. Have discovered a lot of great audiobooks not available through Overdrive and appreciate that they are available on demand. Sorry to hear that the collections budget has been cut.
So disappointed and sorry to hear you are cutting Hoopla. It has been my go-to resource for books and music. I find Overdrive clunky, the Hoopla app is much more streamlined and simpler to use. I finally got RBDigital to work and it’s a fright. I will greatly miss Hoopla.