It's another good reason to have a library card.

The St. Louis County Library will offer streaming media to patrons starting this month. The service, called "hoopla," is similar to Netflix, offering movies, TV shows, etc. for computers with internet service, smart phones or tablets.

The shows aren't going to be first run, but they will be free. A quick survey of the hoopla catalog showed that many of the holdings are fairly old and a lot of the movies are second rate. But the Oscar-winning "The King's Speech" was there, and if you get an urge to watch TV's "The Addams Family" or the British version of "The Office," you can satisfy that urge. For free -- so long as your data package covers it. Hoopla will also offer albums, some the day they are released.

Of course the library system will be paying. Each library patron is limited to 10 hoopla downloads a month. They usually cost a library system $.99 to $2.99 per loan. When the due date arrives, the show disappears from your device automatically. But there is no waiting for the download nor is there a limit on how many library patrons can download a title at a time.