Starting May 1, 2026, we are introducing a daily spending cap. Patrons will still have five allotted checkouts per month and can use those until or unless the spending cap is reached.
We once again find ourselves facing the dual challenge of high demand and high cost for eResources. The changes we implemented in the Fall of 2024 did help but have not proven sufficient in the face of growing demand. In fact, our monthly cost for hoopla is now at the same level as when we implemented the changes. Unfortunately, managing the expense of a cost per circulation model cannot be effectively done through loan limits alone. The spending cap is the only way to know for sure what our monthly bills will be.
Hoopla charges the library every time an item gets checked out. Prices can range from $0.50 to $3.99. The spending cap is a dollar amount limit the library sets which, once reached, pauses checkouts until the next day. The day restarts at midnight local time.
Patrons will receive the following message in a pop-up box:
“The collective daily borrow limit set by your library has been reached and will reset at midnight. Please browse and add titles to favorites so you can easily access them after midnight.” 
This is a collective limit, not to be confused with the personal check out limit, which remains at 5 per month.
Encourage patrons to build their Favorites list by browsing and tapping the heart icon in the item’s record in Hoopla. This allows for quicker browsing before deciding what to check out. The best times to borrow, according to other library systems that have made this change, are just after midnight or before 8am.
Please also highlight Hoopla’s end-of-month Bonus Borrows! These items are available for checkout during the last seven days of the month and do not count toward either individual checkout limits or the daily collective limit.
There are limitations on our ability to change the wording of the message and the timing of the daily reset. We will continue to advocate to the vendor for more control over both of these settings.
Not necessarily. This change will keep costs in line with the budget in a more direct way than the 2024 changes to checkout limits. It provides us with greater control over monthly costs.
This is something we are exploring, but it is not something that Hoopla is currently able to implement. In addition, many people who live in the neighboring counties work in Allegheny County and contribute to the Regional Asset District funding pool through their local spending. We will continue to advocate for this level of control with our vendor, but even if it becomes a possibility, we will need to be thoughtful in the changes we make.
We did consider lowering the checkout limit as an option but given the continued increase in new users and the unpredictability of monthly checkouts, it is not a viable option since we need predictable monthly costs for budgeting purposes. When we lowered the checkout limits from 15 to 5, we anticipated a significant decrease in our monthly costs. Unfortunately, after the initial drop our monthly costs have consistently been rising each month to the point where our Jan 2026 invoice was higher than our Aug 2024 invoice (the month before we instituted the decrease in checkout limit).
It’s possible, but we feel it is important to maintain a variety of electronic content platforms to support a healthy library marketplace. We would consider allocating resources to a new vendor or vendors if the choice is made to no longer offer Hoopla
There are no changes coming to Libby. The Libby collection is managed by CLP in a way that the Hoopla collection is not. Hoopla is a cost per circulation model which means the library pays for each circulation at the point of checkout, and as such we are unable to know what each monthly bill will be. We do projections based on previous monthly checkouts and user behavior, but each monthly spend is unknown until we receive the bill based on what exactly was checked out that month. On Libby, we purchase the titles and quantities and manage the holds, so we are able to control and maintain costs as needed.
At this point, we are unsure what time of day the daily limits will be reached. We do expect that there will be turnaways based on what our average daily spend is now compared to what the daily spending cap will be after May 1.
No. Bonus Borrows, which are available the last seven days of every month, are not impacted by the Daily Spending Cap and will be available for checkout even if the Daily Spending Cap has been reached. Bonus Borrows let you borrow library books, movies, and more, and they do not count as part of your 5 borrows per month.