“Gooo digital!” says D.C. Public Library executive director Richard Reyes-Gavilan, cheerleading the library’s brand new effort to get the word out that, well, it has some damn cool online offerings.

As we noted last month, DCPL patrons have free access to the Criterion Collection and thousands of other movies and TV shows just by virtue of having a library card. That’s really only the tip of the iceberg, though.

DCPL cardholders can also access audiobooks and e-books, download music from Sony’s entire catalog and thousands of other labels, pick up new languages with Mango, take classes with Lynda, practice math and science with Khan Academy, and so much more—if only patrons realized they were there for the streaming.

In a recent survey, only 49 percent of the library’s website users reported being aware of the library’s digital holdings.

“We invest so much time and effort, rightfully so, marketing the services that take place in our building. For years, we’ve also talked about the library being this 24/7 resource—they’re more than their building, they’re more nimble, ubiquitous,” Reyes-Gavilan says. “This is really our first attempt to promote it as such, that the library is everywhere—in the palm of your hands, behind the computer screen, available at 2 o’clock in the morning.”

The effort has been branded GoDigital, and it will be an evergreen campaign for the library, much like it promotes the “Sing, Talk, Read” early literacy program. It is part of an ambitious five-year plan to have 75 percent of Washingtonians as active cardholders, up from 60 percent today.

But before officials launched its concerted effort to make patrons aware of DCPL’s online resources, they decided the website needed streamlining. Whereas the various digital tools were previously buried under several layers of pages, they can now be found under four broad categories on the GoDigital landing page: watch, read, listen, and learn.

Click “watch,” and a world of movies, documentaries, TV shows, recorded performances, and online classes is instantly available from more than a dozen providers. The “read” page brings up OverDrive, which provides e-books and audiobooks and is currently the library’s most popular digital offering by far. Right next it are less well-known holdings—like digital copies of current magazines, the complete archive of National Geographic, access to a wide array of domestic and foreign newspapers, and even an online book recommendation system.

There were more than a million downloads of e-books, video, audio, and magazines in fiscal year 2016, and the library has seen steady digital growth in recent years. But it also appears that a relatively low number of people are borrowing a lot of content.

“There is a strong desire here to make sure that our ever expanding universe of digital content gets into more hands than it currently is,” Reyes-Gavilan says. “We want to create demand, frankly, and probably our best attempt, for now, is by creating this new landing page and getting out wherever we can and promoting the fact that we own this stuff.”

Expect to see bus, radio, and other advertisements going forward that promote GoDigital, particularly in Wards 5, 7, and 8, where libraries generally see lower usage rates of both physical and digital materials.

Library officials are well aware that not everyone has access to wifi, and DCPL is committed to helping people get web access, including quietly piloting a project in the Deanwood and Parklands-Turner libraries to loan out mobile hotspots.

“We know that everyone is not online, but we do know that there are people who are online who are not using [these services]. Our hypothesis is that the stuff is not getting used for lack of having a device, but from a lack of awareness really,” Reyes-Gavilan says. “This is a problem that libraries have in general with marketing their resources and being considered this one trick pony, with books on the shelf and nothing else.”

Find the library’s wide array of digital offerings here.

Previously:
Have A D.C. Library Card? You Can Stream The Criterion Collection And Thousands Of Other Movies
These Were The Most Popular Books At D.C.’s Public Libraries This Year