Most Butler County libraries ending access to Hoopla service Oct. 24
Butler County’s library cardholders soon will lose access to a service that has been growing in popularity nationwide.
Eight of the nine member libraries in the Butler County Federated Library System will terminate access to the Hoopla service for cardholders effective Oct. 24, as the service has become too expensive for the library system to operate.
Hoopla is a digital service which allows library cardholders to borrow e-books, movies, TV shows and comics. Butler Area Public Library director Lori Hinderliter said the service is not ending because too few people were making use of it. On the contrary, Hoopla is too popular for the library system to maintain.
“Every time someone would borrow something, it costs the libraries some money,” Hinderliter said. “So when we have more people borrowing more items, then that just increased our overall cost.”
The eight libraries cutting off Hoopla service are Butler Area Public Library, Cranberry Public Library, Evans City Public Library, Mars Area Public Library, North Trails Public Library, Prospect Community Library, Slippery Rock Community Library and Zelienople Area Public Library.
The lone exception is South Butler Community Library in Saxonburg. Library director Michelle Lesniak said that library’s board voted to keep Hoopla service funded until at least the end of the year.
“We’re going to kind of pay our own way,” Lesniak said. “Our library board decided to try to continue to fund it until the end of the year so that our users could continue to enjoy those digital resources that they use and appreciate.”
However, only those who specifically hold South Butler library cards will be able to access Hoopla after Oct. 24. Cardholders from the other eight libraries will still lose access.
According to a Facebook post issued by some of the affected libraries, only 5.6% of cardholders in Butler County use the Hoopla service. Despite this, the library system’s expenses from the service have exceeded its annual budget of $40,000 in the first half of 2025, indicating a heavy amount of Hoopla usage.
Lesniak estimated that, if South Butler decides to retain Hoopla service for the 2026 budget year, the library would have to set aside $15,000 for it.
She credits a large amount of community support for making it possible for South Butler to continue offering Hoopla for the rest of 2025.
“We had some generous donations and people that came to us and said, if we needed support, then they would really appreciate helping out,” Lesniak said.
The first warning sign for Hoopla users came in August, when the library system reduced the maximum number of digital Hoopla borrows per month from six to five.
“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t find a formula that would work and allow us to do continue to offer the service,” Hinderliter said.
While Hoopla service is ending at most libraries — at least for now — the library system stresses that it still offers its patrons access to a similar service called Libby, which also offers e-books, audiobooks, and digital magazines for lending.
Hinderliter says that Libby is in no immediate danger of meeting the same fate as Hoopla.
