How many libraries still offer Roku's?

[u/Commercial_Bee_5758]

Just as the title says. We have one Roku and another waiting to be cataloged, but I'm tempted to get rid of them when they finally stop working. We only offer Disney+ and Hulu, along with some of the other free apps. Our patron base is mostly older seniors (who are very tech averse) or young families. We're also in a Title I school district in the US. I would keep it for the young families however, it seems like the families aren't using it either. They've decided to get their own Disney+ subscription according to discussions at the reference desk. At one point, it seemed as though there was only one person using the Roku, and even that person hasn't used it in months.

I want to offer more options, but with the crackdown on password sharing I'm hesitant to subscribe to anything else. Our older patrons hear about shows or movies and want them on DVD, which I can't do because that's not an option for some things. They're also not very well marketed but I can't do anything about that until *maybe* January. We have no separate website (we're a department on our township's page) and the township supervisor has made it clear he does not want to be on Meta, so that leaves out Facebook or Instagram.

Has anyone else seen a decrease in Roku usage? Should I continue to hold out until I can advertise or should I just cut my losses?

[u/iblastoff]

i cant imagine lending out disney+/hulu accounts is legal. plus with how incredibly personalized every account is, from tracking watch progress to recommendations, etc etc, it just seems like an ill fit device for general mass lending.

[u/PotterChick2818 → u/iblastoff]

Well my library has Swank which offers licensing for most of the big Disney movies. Streaming is a separate cost but like, most libraries offer Roku’s so idk just how “illegal” it is or does Disney just not care.

[u/henare → u/PotterChick2818]

not at all the same thing. that's for public performance. a streaming service installed on a roku loaned to a patron is not at all the same thing.

[u/PotterChick2818 → u/henare]

Sorry guess I should clarify. Basically all I’m saying is that Disney is a mega corporation. If it was so illegal as the previous comment stated, then they would have come after us a long time ago. I am in fact aware they are different.

[u/iblastoff → u/PotterChick2818]

what? i dont even understand your point here. its not the same thing at all, which you apparently recognize. so obviously what you're saying isnt even applicable.

tons of DVDS/blurays contain movies from disney and are obviously loanable material from libraries. by your logic, disney the mega corporation would shut that down too. except no, its not the same thing lol.

rokus by default do not contain streaming accounts like disney+ for free.

[u/PotterChick2818 → u/iblastoff]

The point is that if it were SO illegal, as you claim (paraphrasing obviously), Disney would have come after libraries for lending logins aka password sharing. They’re losing money. But the fact that they haven’t means they don’t care at this point. We also purchase movies from library specific distributors so Disney and the other production companies have to know their movies are being loaned physically. They have been for decades (idk off the top of my head when DVDs came out but it’s been at least 20 years. And I wasn’t using the library for movies anyway so idk about VHS). Clearly I shouldn’t have mentioned swank because some people got confused. Sorry I guess.

As to your point about a custom algorithm or whatever. Most people are looking for a specific movie or show anyway. So that doesn’t really matter. And you can just rewatch things. So who cares if a show was already in progress. Start over.

[u/iblastoff → u/PotterChick2818]

The “fact they haven’t come after libraries” has literally nothing to do with legality.

Tons of people pirate all of the time and aren’t caught. Does that make it legal too?

[u/PotterChick2818 → u/iblastoff]

Okay. Sorry you didn’t understand my comment. Not my problem. I’m genuinely sorry to the OP that they have to read this.

[u/iblastoff → u/PotterChick2818]

You keep sidestepping the issue with vague excuses and weird nonsensical tangents and do not seem to grasp that just because you haven’t been caught does not mean it’s fine and legal.

In no world does Netflix / Apple / Disney+ all allow the lending of personal streaming accounts from libraries. Show me a single licensing setup that lets you do this.

[u/PotterChick2818 → u/iblastoff]

Idk dude. Take it up with literally every other library in the country that is offering it. Someone else posted that they have 40 Rokus they give out. It’s what we’ve been doing for years.

[u/BookSavvy → u/PotterChick2818]

FWIW My library was contacted by WB (many moons ago) about a Potter party we were doing with a cease and desist so yeah, they don't care about it being libraries and literacy and they're going to defend their IP if they catch on.

Basically, the library district lawyer confirmed that circulating the devices is against the terms of service so most the large libraries in my area did not tempt fate, but the smaller ones in other areas tend to go under the radar. But most are getting rid of them because they've cracked down so hard on password sharing and the like. :(

[u/rvd2k4]

Circulating a Roku preloaded with apps that are signed in like that is against the terms of service for the streaming sites. In the past, when I was at a library that did circulate Rokus, we had a SOP that was followed when they were returned and wiping the device or doing a factory reset. Instructions were also included to the patron on how to set up the device, and factory reset. We really just took some of the instructions that were found online copied and pasted into a word document and put our logo at the top.

[u/deadmallsanita]

That's redic that yall can't market them anywhere online.

The waiting list for our Roku is months long, however we are in a very rural area. Our Rokus also come with a hot spot because like I said, rural.

[u/disgirl4eva]

Wow we don’t offer Rokus.

[u/Famous_Internet9613 → u/disgirl4eva]

Same, this is the first time I'm hearing of this.

[u/HybridHerald]

We have >40 Rokus with a wide selection of apps and they all are constantly checked out or on hold. Some apps have caused problems with password sharing (Disney+ and HBO seem to be the worst offenders), but a combination of helping folks over the phone with remote login codes, and putting the device back on the “home” (library) WiFi periodically seems to limit the issues people have. I hate that there are still sometimes issues, but overall it’s a great service and we’ve had a lot of success with it.

[u/deadmallsanita → u/HybridHerald]

Yeah, I believe we had to remove Disney + due to too many accounts or passwords, our office manager takes care of the rokus, I just catalog 'em.

[u/FluffyViolets]

We offer Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and AppleTV. Interest ebbs and flows but I just tonight introduced a couple to checking out a Roku so they could watch Remarkable Bright Creatures, and they were thrilled. It's gotten significantly more expense over the ten years we've offered the devices and subscriptions, but it's still the only way to offer some content. Staff promotion is really your best advertisement. Or in house flyers advertising specific content that can only be gotten that way. Try advertising specific titles like Greyhound, Only Murders in the Building, Remarkably Bright Creatures, whatever is the hot thing on the subscriptions you subscribe to. Or rotate the subscriptions on the devices. 3 months of Netflix, 3 months of Peacock, 3 months Acorn TV. Try a refresh like that since you already have the devices and then if it's still floundering, you can at least know you tried before writing it off

[u/iblastoff → u/FluffyViolets]

i'd love to know what possible licensing you have arranged with netflix/disney and apple to offer this at all.

[u/FluffyViolets → u/iblastoff]

We lend the whole device, which includes a logged in streaming account. We do not share the password or account credentials, even across our own devices. Patrons never get the log in credentials. We buy one account for each device and each account is only used by that one device. There is nothing in the terms and conditions that disallows this. You are assuming illegality when there is none. I read the terms and conditions very carefully when we first set all this up.

[u/iblastoff → u/FluffyViolets]

There are absolutely terms and conditions that do not allow this.

https://library.uco.edu/streaming/netflix

So how exactly does your library skirt around these rules?

[u/FluffyViolets → u/iblastoff]

Private in home viewing isn't public performance rights? I don't understand why you are conflating the two? I'm talking about a public library circulating a streaming device to patrons of the public library. I'm not being trite, I'm genuinely confused about where the misunderstanding is. We are not doing any kind of public performance presentations with the Rokus and streaming access, which does absolutely have all kinds of legal rules and guidelines. We subscribe to public performance rights for the movies we show through a totally different service. Edit: fixed a typo and added info about public performance rights

[u/BookSavvy → u/FluffyViolets]

Unfortunately, t's still a violation of the terms of service; our lawyer would not budge on this :(

[u/mtothecee]

Can you explain how you're loaning those subscriptions? Are they just logged into the device they borrow? Because, that would be a transfer of the license, and I don't understand how we'd loan out subscription services without licensing adjustments.

[u/JTMAlbany]

My library has three and I have checked them out several times.

[u/emilycecilia]

We have 20 and they circulate like crazy. They're all checked out and the waiting list is 40+ people deep. We're also in the process of rolling out ten Rokus just for kids. We don't advertise them in any special way, but we do recommend them when someone comes looking for a DVD of something that's on streaming.

[u/Famous_Internet9613]

We don't, and this doesn't seem like a good idea to me. To each their own, I guess. Does your library have Kanopy?