Liz Amundson subscribes to three streaming services for her family — Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max. But she’s also enjoying a fourth streaming option that’s completely free with a library card: Madison Public Library’s new streaming service, Kanopy.
“Kanopy is the best thing that libraries can offer people for a price that is affordable to us,” said Amundson, a reference and collection librarian at Madison Public Library, and mother of a sophomore at East High School.
“We can’t get Netflix for you. We can’t get Amazon Prime for you. We can’t get Hulu for you. It’s impossible. So, this is something we can do,” she said.
On March 1, the library began offering Kanopy in a test run to see how it will work.
Molly Warren, who handles digital and online collections for the Madison Public Library, said Kanopy had 769 users in its first month. Those who signed up discovered it without any marketing. “It’s kind of amazing,” Warren said.
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Kanopy’s selection includes about 30,000 videos, including indie films, documentaries, foreign films, popular cinema, educational courses and children’s shows.
The Madison Public Library Foundation provided a $24,000 grant to cover the cost of the library’s one-year subscription to Kanopy.
Warren said some library users have been aware of Kanopy because the University of Wisconsin has subscribed to components of the platform on and off over the years.
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