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Dallas library board hears e-content surge, budget shortfall; Hoopla checkout limits adjusted
Summary
Interim assistant director Sally Lockhart and collections manager Andrew Wright told the Dallas Municipal Library Board that digital checkouts have surged while publisher licensing and limited budgets strain access; the board approved ministerial minutes and staff described a recent reduction to Hoopla checkout limits to stretch funds.
The Dallas Municipal Library Board received an overview of the library system's digital collections on Tuesday, learning that e-content use has surged and that funding limits are constraining access to popular titles.
"We just exceeded 1,600,000 checkouts on the overall platform last year," said Sally Lockhart, interim assistant director for technology and strategic direction, describing long-term growth in OverDrive and Hoopla usage and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on demand.
Lockhart told the board that year-over-year increases on OverDrive have ranged about 25% to 32% in recent years and that Hoopla use rose at comparable rates during the pandemic. She said licensing models and publisher pricing are a key constraint: some e-audiobooks are offered under metered or time-limited access while newly released e-books can cost libraries hundreds or thousands of dollars to acquire enough copies to meet hold demand.
The presentation noted several concrete figures: OverDrive had a record month of about 51,000 checkouts in January; in the last 30 days the system logged roughly 43,800 OverDrive checkouts and a total of…
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