Library Updates

For many of us at the library, a good audiobook is the soundtrack to our morning commute or our walks along the Chippewa River. We know how much you love Hoopla, and to be clear: we love it, too. It’s a service that has brought joy and convenience to so many of our cardholders.

However, after careful consideration and a unanimous vote by our Collection Development committee, the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library will discontinue the Hoopla Digital streaming service as of January 1, 2026.

Why We Are Making This Change

Our library routinely evaluates our collections and services to ensure we are providing you with the best materials in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

Although Hoopla is free for you to use, it operates on a “cost-per-circulation” model. This means the library is charged a fee every single time an item is checked out. While this offers great flexibility, it becomes increasingly costly as the service grows in popularity. Like many other libraries across the country, we have found this model is no longer sustainable and makes it difficult to properly budget for all the other the resources and materials we provide. To be specific, the cost to fund Hoopla at our library has nearly tripled since 2021.

To put that in perspective, Hoopla currently requires about 20% of our annual budget for physical materials. The same funding used in 2025 to provide 1,589 users with one-time access to digital titles could instead purchase physical books, movies, games, and CDs. While a digital checkout happens once, these physical items circulate time and again until they literally fall apart.

We believe our funding is more effectively used toward purchasing in-demand content through platforms where we can better control spending—allowing us to serve more people more reliably.

What This Means for You

We know this change may be disappointing, and we want to help make the transition as smooth as possible:

• Final Checkouts: You can continue to check out items through December 31, 2025.
• Access to Current Loans: You will still have access to any materials checked out on or before December 31 for the duration of the item’s normal lending period.
• Your History & Wishlists: If you want a list of titles you’ve borrowed or have on your “Favorites,” please write them down or take a screenshot before the end of the year. (Because of Wisconsin library privacy laws, our staff does not have access to your personal Hoopla history.)

Looking Forward: Our Commitment to Digital Media

Our goal is to find solutions that fit within our budget while improving your access to digital materials. By ending this service, we can expand access and improve wait times on popular titles on other platforms.

We encourage you to continue using the Libby app by OverDrive. Libby remains one of the largest collections of digital media available, including e-books, e-audiobooks, magazines, and more. Moving forward, we will be reinvesting our resources into Libby to add more copies of the titles you love.

Our goal is to be the best possible stewards of our community’s investment. By moving away from pay-per-use models that are no longer cost-effective, we can ensure our digital library remains robust and accessible for years to come.

Thank you for your understanding and for your continued support of our downtown library. We are honored to be your gateway to stories, and we look forward to seeing you (and your headphones) in the library soon.

Sincerely,
Staff of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library

Questions? Contact us ➜