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New Streaming Services for Deep River Library Patrons

As of July 1, Deep River residents have the opportunity to take advantage of new digital content at the Deep River Public Library (DRPL) with Streaming Video On Demand from Recorded Books, a service that will allow those residents with valid library cards access to binge watch Acorn TV and Quello concerts.

“A large percentage of people in our community here in Deep River love these DVD shows, all British TV…We want to give our residents the kind of materials they’re looking for and when this option came up through Recorded Books, Susan [Rooney, DRPL director] thought it would be a great idea,” said Elaine Alexander, youth services specialist at DRPL.

While the library welcomes many patrons from other towns to check out books and take part in programming offered, some programs are proprietary, and Alexander said this is one that they can’t extend beyond Deep River residents.

Residents get seven hours of binge watching each week. The seven-hour window begins as soon as the item is checked out; there is no pausing or coming back to the service later, which is why the program is advertised as binge watching.

However, that seven-hour limit does restart at the beginning of the next week and residents are welcome to check out another seven hours of that binge watching.

“It’s definitely meant for the binge watcher who wants to watch multiple episodes in a row,” said Alexander.

Acorn TV offers shows such as British and intellectual murder mysteries, dramas, comedies, and documentaries. Some program favorites include Foyle’s War and Doc Martin. Quello concerts offers live concert footage in a wide range of music genres.

“I think a lot of people just don’t realize it’s there,” said Alexander.

Alexander said that Rooney looked over the budget and the library was able to get rid of a few items that weren’t very popular and in switching those out, freed up room in the library’s budget to make a deal to receive Acorn TV as well as the Quello concert series, at no cost to Deep River residents.

The deal also includes Universal Class, which gives residents access to free online classes on topics from math to hobbies and home improvement to alternative medicine.

“This is more primarily for adults, I don’t think there’s a lot on there for kids to get excited about,” said Alexander.

Alexander said the program seems very popular so far and she thinks it will get good use by the community since “the community let us know that they are interested in this kind of TV shows” and this program will take the place of those DVDs that were currently filling the community’s requests.

“Maybe we can buy less DVDs. It can be advantageous that way, we can spend our money getting different types of in-house products,” said Alexander.

Another positive to this program is that more than one person can watch at a time, unlike the DVDs, which are limited to a single person at a time as the availability to check one out becomes available.

“There’s nothing like instant gratification,” said Alexander. “So that definitely factored in.”

For more information,n visit deepriverlibrary.accountsupport.com or call the DRPL at 860-526-6039 during service hours.