Senior Library Assistant Rachel March, center, teaches Adrianne Harris how to check out e-books during an OverDrive class at the Carson City Library. The library is now offering streaming video through the OverDrive program.
Carson City Library patrons can now check out digital copies of movies though the OverDrive system available to card holders.
“We’ve been using the OverDrive platform for about five years for e-books and e-audiobooks,” said Amy Lauder, collection development manager. “We’ve just now added streaming video.”
For now, the collection includes recent films, classics, foreign films and documentaries. It also includes fitness videos.
“We tried to pick what we thought people would be interested in,” Lauder said. “We’re going to see what’s popular and keep adding.”
Using their library cards, patrons can go online to the library’s website and select “Download eBooks and Audiobooks” from the “Explore Collections” drop down menu to find a link to Carson City Library’s OverDrive website. They may also download the app on their phones or smart devices.
She said patrons will have between one to three weeks to watch the films, and films from some publishers will expire within two or three days of first watching it.
Lauder said the OverDrive platform has proved successful.
“It’s been doing really well,” she said. “The graph for its usage is this perfect, slanted upward line. Last year, we had almost 23,000 check outs.”
Adding streaming video content appears to be a good fit.
“One of our most popular offerings in the physical library is our video collection,” Lauder said. “We want to get that into our digital collection as well.”
The learning curve should be relatively small, she said.
“It’s really nice because we’ve been using this platform for some time now,” Lauder said. “People are used to using it.”
OverDrive classes are also offered each month at the Carson City Library, 900 N. Roop St. The next one will be 6 p.m. Jan. 18.
“They can also come in and ask our staff,” Lauder said.
