Public libraries across Alabama have had to shut their doors due to the coronavirus epidemic -- but they’re also seeing past efforts to expand their online offerings pay off in unexpected circumstances.

Major libraries across the state offer a huge slate of online services: Patrons can check out ebooks and audiobooks, stream movies and TV shows, prepare for standardized tests and get expert help with homework. Some systems have expanded access to their online offerings since the start of the epidemic, or even shifted their purchasing patterns for new materials. Some have taken story time sessions online to maintain a sense of normalcy for their youngest clients (and some relief for their parents).

“A lot of people are finding a renewed purpose in the library,” said Melanie Thornton, director of public relations for the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

The Huntsville-Madison County system is broadly typical of major systems in the state in that it offers a spectrum of online content services. A Digital Media Zone powered by OverDrive allows patrons to check out ebooks, audiobooks and movies. Freading adds yet more ebooks. Freegal has “thousands of songs and music videos available for free and for keeps.”

The exact mix of services varies from system to system, as does the way they’re presented on systems’ websites. Most systems are actively promoting their online offerings right on their homepages, but it pays to poke around. The Birmingham Public Library has a “Digital Library” tab. The website for Jefferson County public libraries has a coronavirus update on its homepage that lists online services. At the Mobile Public Library’s MPLonline.org, you can find the most popular ones under the “eResources” tab, where you can select “Digital Downloads.”

Options on the Mobile system’s site include Cloud Library (audiobooks and ebooks), Flipster (magazines), hoopla (ebook, audiobooks, comics, music, TV shows and movies) and kanopy (movies, with an emphasis on independent, foreign, documentary and classic cinema).

The Mobile Public Library website gives access to a wide range of online services.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

“Hoopla is one of our most robust resources,” said Carly Akers, acquisitions manager for the Mobile Public Library system. It covers a wide range of material and parents can set up children’s accounts with limitations on what content they can access, she said.

“Right now you get up to 20 checkouts a month” on hoopla, Akers said. “We’ve upped that for the pandemic. You used to get 10 checkouts a month.”

Representatives of several systems singled out TumbleBooks as a resource that might be particularly useful to parents looking for ways to entertain and educate their children while schools are out. It’s a “curated database of children’s ebooks” that includes talking picture books, read-along chapter books, National Geographic videos, non-fiction books, foreign-language books, graphic novels and playlists.

Vince Bellofatto, director of public relations and marketing for the Tuscaloosa Public Library, said that system had added prominent links to TumbleBooks and Scholastic’s “Learn at Home” program to its homepage. “Particularly for parents, we’re trying to offer them as much ease of access as possible,” he said.

There’s definitely been a surge in demand. “Our hold list for for ebooks has been unbelievable,” Bellofatto said. He said he thought the Tuscaloosa system’s OverDrive traffic had seen more than a 20 percent increase. Thornton said that between the week of March 9 and March 16, the Huntsville-Madison County system saw a 19 percent increase in OverDrive usage.

To the extent there’s a catch, it’s that many of these services (but not all) require a user to have an active library card. As interest has surged, patrons have been doing a lot of renewals. Thornton said the Huntsville system has handled these mostly through email (askus@hmcpl.org) but also has handled inquiries by phone and even via Facebook. Bellofatto said Tuscaloosa patrons can use the “contact us” inquiry form on the system’s website to renew.

Akers said Mobile-area patrons can renew by phone. “All our branches are occupied right now,” she said, so patrons can call the main number (251-340-1458) or their preferred branch.

New cards are a little trickier, since proof of residency is required. Bellofatto and Thornton said the Tuscaloosa and Huntsville systems haven’t found that to be a big issue yet but may develop ways to handle it if the coronavirus shutdown lasts long enough for the demand to grow. The Mobile system is issuing 90-day temporary cards. Jefferson County residents can self-register for a one-month “eCard” that allows immediate access to online resources.

Bellofatto noted that some services have decided to cut users some slack during the epidemic. So even if your library can’t give you a card, it might be able to help you find resources. “Any of the sites that are free, we’re pushing people to them,” he said.

In another coronavirus-driven effort, some systems have begun posting children’s storytime videos online. “It’s something that the parents have asked for a long time,” Thornton said. It wasn’t as easy as you might think, because of copyright issues, she said -- “But a lot of authors, after this happened, have relaxed their rights.”

“We started recording youth story time videos before we closed. We felt like it was something on the horizon,” Thornton said. She said the Huntsville system’s youth librarians have continued to record new sessions at home, which are being posted to the system’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. “They thought it was really important for their kids to still see them, and to help the children have a sense of normalcy,” Thornton said. The videos have racked up thousands of views in a short time, she said.

The Mobile system is doing the same, Akers said. Recent additions on Facebook and YouTube include Ms. Gert at the Toulminville Branch reading “Bark George” and a “Bathtime Storytime” session with Ms. Rhodes reading “The Pigeon Needs a Bath” and “Dog’s Colorful Day.”

The libraries offer more than entertainment content. They also provide homework help and continuing education services. Most offer free academic support through Tutor.com, offered via homeworkalabama.org with the support of the Alabama Public Library Service.

“It’s pretty fantastic,” said Akers. “It goes all the way up to college courses.”

Other services may be of more use to older students. Lynda.com helps develop “business, software, technology and creative skills.” Learning Express Library helps with professional and academic test preparation. Akers described Universal Class as being “for what we call lifelong learners:” It offers a huge range of online classes.

Both Thornton and Bellofatto said their systems have made rapid changes in spending since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, spending less on hard copies and more on electronic resources. “We added over 100 [digital] titles last week,” said Thornton.

But there’s more to it than that. Libraries had their digital infrastructure in place because they’ve systematically chosen to invest in it over the last couple of decades. That has meant straying from the classic sense of libraries as brick-and-mortar institutions where people go to put their hands on tangible materials, and that hasn’t always been easy.

“It’s definitely a challenge when you think about library budgets,” Bellofatto said.

Library representatives all said that shutting down the physical branches was a hard decision to make. But they said they have the sense that it’s forcing longtime customers to investigate online resources they might never have felt the need to use before. They’re all looking forward to the day when they can reopen, but they’re also hoping the people who flock back in will think of their electronic assets as more than an emergency backup.

“We want them to come back in,” said Bellofatto. “But maybe they’ll continue to use the new resources they’ve discovered.”