NETFLIX AS COMPLEMENTARY ILL WORKS IN SOME SMALL LIBRARIES

Library Hotline
March 11, 2008

Netflix, the popular service that delivers DVD rentals to millions of customers, may prove to be a worthwhile ancillary service for some public libraries. Although Netflix is limited to personal and noncommercial use, some library staffers have interpreted this to define libraries as a personal account.

At Sanbornton Public Library, NH, serving a population under 3,000, Director Cab Vinton considers Netflix as an interlibrary loan (ILL) substitute. His library, written up March 10th in Newsweek magazine, has just begun to use the $16.99 three-discs-at-a-time membership. He contacted Netflix about establishing a legitimate membership. He even offered to discontinue the service if the company requested it; to date, Netflix has not responded. "I think they've got bigger fish to fry," Vinton told Library Hotline, also noting that the Newsweek article mentioned that some video stores were also Netflix customers. "I don't see it as a negative for them," Vinton said about Netflix having libraries as customers. "We're basically marketing the product for them."

That's certainly the case with Cook Memorial Library (CML), Tamworth, NH. Several library patrons, after using the library's Netflix service, have become customers on their own, CML director Jay Rancourt told Library Hotline. CML lends out fewer than ten titles per month, but the service "saves us a lot of money," she said. While usage is usually low, less than five percent of all ILL requests, it's still useful when supplementing a collection with an obscure film or expensive television series. CML also uses Netflix to screen potential library purchases.

Exeter Public Library, RI, director Amy Neilson doesn't consider her Netflix experiment very successful. Patrons haven't been using it much so she'll "probably discontinue it within a month," she told Library Hotline. She does consider it a good public relations ploy, as patrons appreciate the effort.