Durham County Library sees big uptick in video views during pandemic

Stuck at home during the pandemic, Durham County Library patrons are more often turning to a new outlet to pass the time—streaming movies.

The county library system saw a 48% increase in video views from the first half of last fiscal year, which ended before the pandemic began, and the first half of the current fiscal year. It was 36,314 views this fiscal year, compared to 24,507 views last year, wrote Stephanie K. Bonestell, the library's system's public relations officer, in an email.

At the moment, Durham has no plans to add any additional streaming video services to its offerings, but the uptick in views tracks with the experiences of other libraries across the country during COVID-19

A recent survey of more than 730 librarians, mostly in the United States, from Kanopy, a video streaming service, found that library patrons are taking advantage of free streaming services via their libraries more often. The survey found that nearly 46% of libraries surveyed saw a moderate to significant increase in demand for streaming video, primarily because of the pandemic.

“During the pandemic we experienced a sharp spike in streaming video usage, and this increase has continued even though we reopened for in-person service over the summer,” said Kay Cahill, Director, Collections & Technology, Vancouver Public Library, in a press release. “We saw a strong appetite for educational streaming video content in 2020 and a significant increase in recreational and educational use.”