Streaming Availability and Library Circulation: An Exploratory Study

The contents of a popular film and television video collection at a mid-sized university totaling 2,242 items were examined for availability and total number of checkouts on three major streaming services: Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. A total of 1026 titles were coded for availability on Netflix and Hulu. Then, 454 items were coded for availability on Amazon Instant. It was found that total circulation counts changed depending on the streaming services used. Specifically only Hulu was found to correlate negatively. Library titles available on Netflix Streaming had more charges on average then titles not available on Netflix streaming. Titles available on Amazon Instant were twice as likely to circulate then items not available on Amazon Instant. This leads to the possibility that Amazon Instant might be used as collection development tool in order to gauge how often certain DVD title could circulate. In addition it can be concluded that availability over subscription streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Instant, actually points to items that may circulate more frequently.