The City of Bridgeport has closed its public facilities for the next two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak.  Patrons can return books in the drop-box and there will be no fines collected during the closing.  Holds will be held until we re-open.  

 

Let me remind you that a many of the library’s services are available online 24/7.  You can access them through the library’s website www.youseemore.com/bridgeport.  There are instructions for each service on how to access them, but most require a Bridgeport library card number.  If asked for a pin number, unless you changed it, it is the last four digits of your barcode number. 

 

The major online services are the WVDELI, Hoopla, and RBDigital.  There are over 40 online services for you to try including Freegal for music, Zinio for magazines, and Video on Demand for movies.  Details are available online or in the library brochure.

 

The WVDELI represents a consortium of eleven libraries, nine public and two academics.  Each of the member libraries are required to spend $10,000 per year on content that is available to all cardholders of these libraries.  Last year we spent over $400,000 dollars on content, most of which is available to everyone.  While there is strength in unity, that also means that over half-a-million West Virginians have access to the materials on the WVDELI and competition for best-sellers can be just as strong. 

 

To combat that, most of the members of the WVDELI also have Advantage collections which means that if your library has purchased a bestseller for their Advantage collection, you are only competing with other area residents.  For example, although at one point we had 190 holds on Michelle Obama’s “Becoming,” Bridgeporters had four copies devoted just to them; you must sign into the site to be able to see these titles.  With over $3,000,000 in content and over 70,000 items, the WVDELI offers considerable variety in eBooks and eaudiobooks for users.

 

One of our main providers of online services is RBDigital, a well-known platform with a new name.  It began as a provider of audiobooks from Recorded Books, one of the premiere publishers in the audio format.  Because of the high quality of their products, some authors have signed exclusive deals with Recorded Books and their audiobooks are rarely available to the members of the WVDELI.  Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander series, is a case in point.   The American versions of her audiobooks are primarily available for download from Recorded Books as have been books from Danielle Steel and Stephen King.  

 

The RBDigital platform provides access to audiobooks and eBooks as well as magazines under the Zinio name, and a host of other online services.  Once you sign in to the RBDigital platform you will see these services.  Beginning July 1 of last year, we are offering RBDigital Unlimited which provides access to over 30,000 of their audiobooks.  With demand for audiobooks growing, this hopefully should meet the need.

 

Hoopla is another download service which includes eBooks, eaudios, music, comics, television series and movies.  The materials are always available.  The only difference is that the library is charged for each individual download.  This has made us put limits on access to this service.  And even with that, use of Hoopla is jumping every month.  

 

So, if the book or audiobook is on hold on the WVDELI, or you don’t see what you want at one site, be sure to look at the others.  And don’t forget all the other online services available 24/7.