Category: Services

See What All the Hoopla Is About

NOTE: There is now a new, updated post about hoopla. Check it out here: https://techtips.eglibrary.org/hoopla/

hoopla logo

There is a new streaming service coming December 2, 2019 to the East Greenbush Library! Hoopla Digital is a one-stop-shop for all things digital entertainment.

Hoopla Digital is a service that has access to over 700,000 titles in various formats:

-Movies
-Television
-Music
-e-books (including novels, graphic novels and non-fiction)
-Audiobooks

Hoopla Digital is free to any East Greenbush or Schodack resident. If you are a resident of East Greenbush or Schodack and your card is denied, please come to the circulation desk at the library with proof of your current residence.

Hoopla differs from OverDrive because there are no holds or waiting lists. If you are browsing and see an e-book or movie that you want to check out, you can check it out right then and there without having to wait.

You are allowed five checkouts per month. This includes all types of media. The loan period starts from the moment the title is borrowed. Titles will be automatically returned at the end of the loan period and there are no late fees. Additionally, you are able to re-borrow the same title once the lending period has ended. Here are the lending periods for various media types:

e-books/Comics/Graphic Novels – 21 days
Movies/Television – 72 hours (some content 48 hours)
Music – 7 days
Audiobooks – 21 days

This sounds great, you may be saying to yourself, how do I sign up? Well, it’s easy! Starting December 2, 2019, head over to Hoopla’s website or download the app to your device, and create a free account. All you need to sign up is an email address and your library card number.

Once your account has been created, you’re ready to start streaming and/or downloading content. You can view Hoopla content on a computer, your smartphone, and various other streaming devices such as: Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Android and Amazon Alexa (smart speaker).

Helpful Tips:

If you check out an e-book, the book must be read within the Hoopla app.

If you are unable to borrow materials and you have not reached your monthly five item limit, please contact the library.

If you have any questions, you can contact Hoopla staff directly via email through the app and they will respond within 24 hours.

Pay Library Fines Online

A new feature has been added to the Upper Hudson Library System’s online catalog. Patrons now have the ability to pay for their library fines online with a credit card or PayPal account.

To begin, head over to the UHLS Online Catalog, Encore. There is also a link for “My Account” on the East Greenbush Community Library’s website under the Explore heading.

Once you have logged in with your library card number and PIN, click on the Fines/Fees link on the left. If you have fines, you will see the fine total in parenthesis next to Fines/Fees.

To continue, click on Fines/Fees. Please note that you need to have a minimum balance of $1.01 to pay your fines online.

Here you will see a display listing the details about each fine. Click on the gray Pay Online button to continue.


You can select which fines you would like to pay. By default, all fines are currently selected. Uncheck any fines you would like to pay later. Once you have selected the fines you would like to pay online, click continue. Clicking cancel will take you back to the previous screen.

From here you can enter your payment information. In the top right corner, there is an order summary that displays your the total you will be paying today. There are two ways to pay. If you click Pay with PayPal, you can login with your PayPal account and follow the steps from there. The second option is to enter your credit card information and billing address and click the Pay Now button. Once your payment has processed, you will get a confirmation message that your payment has gone through.

If you have any questions, please contact the library. Have you tried out the new pay online feature? Let us know in the comments!

New Event Calendar Is Live!

We’ve been working hard to configure a new calendar and room reservation software, and we’re really excited about it!  The new calendar went live today.  Here is a screen shot of the home page, which can be reached by going to http://events.eglibrary.org:

Navigation

Menu Bar

  • Home brings you back to the home page of our website, as does clicking our logo
  • Events calendar brings you to the view you see above.
  • Reserve a room leads to our online meeting room reservation system.  This can be used by patrons who want to request the use of one of our meeting rooms for their group.
  • Newsletter takes you to a page we have set up for viewing the current newsletter, subscribing to email news, linking to age-specific calendars, and subscribing to events using RSS.

Filters

On the left side of the page, you will see a number of options to limit the visible events.  You can select as many filters as you like, but note that a very limited search may return no results.  After selecting filters, click “apply” to see the abridged view.

  • Keyword allows you to search for any word in the event title or description.  Keep in mind that events not sponsored by the library cannot be viewed on the calendar.
  • Age limits to any age group you check.  If you are only interested in events for children, check the children box and click “apply.”
  • Program Type indicates the subject of the program.  If you would like to see all of the computer classes at the library, choose the “computers and technology” program type.  If you only want to see adult computer classes, make sure you also check “adult” in the age filter.
  • Room see all of the events in a particular room.

Upcoming and Month Views

Using the green buttons at the top of the page, you can switch between the monthly calendar view and the upcoming view.  Upcoming shows events in card format, starting with today’s events.

In the monthly view, you can skip ahead several months by clicking on the month name and using the date picker to advance to any month:

How Do I Register for an Event?

Click to see written instructions, instead.  Please note that if you do not provide an email address in your registration, you will not receive event reminders or be notified of event cancellations or wait list promotion.

How Do I Request a Room?

See page 2 of the written instructions if you’d prefer that over video.

What if I Registered/Reserved Using the Old Calendar?

Rest assured, our staff has been hard at work making sure all future events, registrations, and meeting room reservations are being transferred.  Please let us know if anything went awry in that process.

I Still Have Questions or Comments

Let us know in the comments below or call the library at 518-477-7476.  We look forward to your feedback!

New Events Calendar – Coming Soon!

On June 1st, the library will launch its new events calendar/room reservation system!  We’ve been working hard to find and configure a new calendar for our users that has all of the latest features.

Because switching calendars can be tricky, we decided to coordinate the launch with the beginning of the summer newsletter cycle.  Our newsletter came out earlier than usual because of the upcoming holiday, so some of you may be confused by the fact that many of the events we advertised do not appear on our calendar.  Fear not!  You will be able to register for events as soon as the new calendar goes live.  For those of you signing up for events that are available on our current calendar, our staff members will move your registration to the new calendar on launch day.

Stay tuned – we will be posting instructional videos and documents for using the new system the day before we launch.

Tips for Using the New Libby App from OverDrive

In case you missed it, OverDrive has released a more user-friendly app named Libby that can be used to consume the library’s downloadable e-books and audiobooks.  Recently, the folks at the OverDrive blog composed a handy tip sheet for getting the most out of Libby.  We hope you find these tips as useful as we did!  Do you have your own tips to share?  Let us know in the comments!