User:Krslagley/sandbox

=hoopla digital= hoopla digital is a multimedia platform created by Midwest Tape, LLC specifically for public libraries and their patrons. hoopla digital allows patrons of participating libraries to view movies, television shows, music albums, and audiobooks via a web browser or an Android or Apple iOS mobile device. Library patrons log into hoopla using an email address and a valid library card, and then are permitted to borrow as many titles per month as their library permits. hoopla began Beta testing in January of 2013 with eight libraries across the United States and Canada. In June of 2013, Midwest Tape announced that hoopla was no longer Beta testing and was open to all libraries.

Platform Development
In 2009, Midwest Tape set out to design the first platform specifically for libraries to digitally lend movies, TV, music and audiobooks. Initially called Project Alexandria, the platform was designed to extend the library experience to the digital field. Patrons would log onto the website or the app, browse the available titles, borrow them, and then return them. Midwest Tape also designed the platform to be intentionally different than some of its main competitors. Unlike other electronic library websites, users would at no time be able to retain copies of the titles they borrow and the mobile app would be entirely self-contained and not require the use of a secondary app or user account.

Development increased significantly by 2011, and by late that year the platform name had been changed from Alexandria to hoopla digital. The platform was first announced to librarians in March of 2012, and the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time it was announced, Midwest Tape intended to release two versions of the product; the first version would permit libraries to circulate one copy of a digital title to one user at a time, similar to how OverDrive, Inc circulates e-books. The second version would allow libraries to offer a "simultaneous access" platform where the number of patrons that could borrow a single title at the same time was unlimited. By the time the platform began testing in 2012, the company had eliminated the one-copy, one-user option and instead was only offering a simultaneous access-model platform.

Dreamscape Media
In 2010, Dreamscape Media became the publishing arm of Midwest Tape. Dreamscape began producing audiobooks of all different genres and making them available to consumers via public libraries, digital platforms and retail sales. In 2013, Dreamscape purchased Nutmeg Media, a privately owned company which adapts picture books to video for children in the preschool through primary grades, and began expanding and adding book-based children's video to their product line.

hoopla digital
Midwest Tape began developing a library-specific digital lending platform in earnest beginning in 2012. The platform was named hoopla digital and began Beta testing with eight public libraries in January 2013. After spending six months in Beta testing, Midwest Tape announced the full launch of the platform at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago on June 27, 2013.