Cindy Wright (left), reference assistant at the Peoria Public Library, shows library patron Tonya Vining how to use the new Freegal Music and Freegal Movie service at the main library branch downtown. The service gives registered cardholders the ability to download or stream more than eight million songs and 5,000 movies. Photo by Elise Zwicky/for Chronicle Media

The Peoria Public Library’s selection of music and movies has grown tremendously in the last month without taking up any shelf space.

The library has added a Freegal Music service offered by Library Ideas that gives Peoria Public Library cardholders the ability to download or stream more than 8 million songs from 28,000 music labels, including Sony Music’s catalog, at no cost to the patron. The Freegal Movie service allows cardholders to choose from 5,000 movies.

“We know that our collections of music CDs and DVDs are very well used, and we wanted another way for our patrons to get access to them since not everyone can get into the library to check out those materials,” said Assistant Library Director Roberta Koscielski. “So it’s something we’d been considering for a while, and the director planned for it in this year’s budget.”

The library paid Library Ideas $19,000 for a one-year subscription to Freegal Music and Freegal Movies so patrons can access the Freegal collection with no software to download and no digital rights management issues. The name of the service comes from the words “free” and “legal.”

While there is no direct cost to patrons, there are weekly limits to how much they can stream and download. Under the terms of the agreement, each registered Peoria Public Library cardholder can download three Freegal Music MP3 files per week and stream three hours of music every day. The Freegal Movie service lets library patrons “check out” three movies per week, which are viewable for 48 hours.

“When you download a song, you save it to your computer or your phone or your iPad and it stays there permanently, so you can listen to it whenever you want,” Koscielski explained.  “Streaming is when you’re listening to it on your device, and then it’s gone. It’s the same thing with the movies; you kind of check out each movie for 48 hours, and after that time period it’s gone.”

Trisha Noack, public relations manager for the Peoria Public Library, straightens the library’s new DVD collection featuring 68 TV series. A new streaming capability the library has added for patrons to access music and movies online will not replace the physical collection of CDs and DVDs, Noack said. Photo by Elise Zwicky/for Chronicle Media

To use the service, patrons simply click the Freegal link on the library’s website at www.peoriapubliclibrary.org and input their library card and PIN numbers. The service can be accessed anywhere patrons have access to the Internet, and the downloaded MP3 files can be played on any device, including iPods. Freegal also has free mobile apps for registered cardholders of subscribing libraries, Koscielski said. The apps are available in the Apple® App Store and Google Play®.

More than 5,000 libraries around the world subscribe to Freegal Music, including the Morton Public Library and Eureka Public Library, locally.

“The subscription fee is determined by not only the number of active cardholders, which for us is 50,000, but also total annual circulation, which for us is over a million, and the population of the city,” Koscielski said. “Freegal takes those things into account in setting up the subscription. So smaller libraries would probably pay less.”

Based in Vienna, Va., Library Ideas is a privately held company founded in 2008 by a group of publishing executives. “The mission of Library Ideas is to provide innovative and turnkey digital solutions to libraries around the world,” according to the company’s website at www.libraryideas.com.

Library Ideas CEO Brian Downing did not respond to a request for an interview.

Usage numbers at the Peoria Public Library have been strong for the first month: 213 songs and 57 movies downloaded and 1,413 songs streamed, Koscielski said.

Among patrons who are using Freegal is retired Bradley University Professor and Peoria Public Library Board member F. Eugene Rebholz.

“I had heard about the service from my son in the Indianapolis area, who uses it at his library, so I was happy when I heard Peoria was getting it,” Rebholz said. “I’ve downloaded exactly two dozen songs so far, ranging from classical to easy listening to southern gospel. There are tons of choices on there.”

The new service is meant to complement the library’s physical collection of music and movies and not replace it, Koscielski said.

In fact, the library rolled out a new collection of more than 1,000 DVDs featuring 68 TV series on the same day it announced the Freegal option of streaming and downloading material. The collection, purchased for $30,000, includes everything from “The Golden Girls” to “The Walking Dead.”

The library also added more than 3,000 DVDs and more than 600 music CDs in the last year at a cost of $90,000 and will continue to add to the collection, Koscielski said.

“The Freegal service can be a supplement for those who do check out our CDs and DVDs to give them more options,” she added. “Or it can be an alternative. If they’re not able to come to the library, they can still get content. We want to encourage people to try Freegal, and if they have any questions or get stuck trying to use it, to please contact us with questions by email or phone, and we can help them through it.”

Library staff will also give a demonstration on how to use the service to anyone who requests help. For more information, call the Peoria Public Library at (309) 497-2000.