This week’s NewsBreak is a review of Bibliotheca’s new streaming service for libraries. Catch up on NewsBreaks’ recent coverage of streaming services and libraries:

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Bridgerton in Libraries: How Libraries Tap Into the Zeitgeist Even When Denied Access

Bibliotheca’s biblio+ has a respectable selection so far, but it doesn’t have the buzzed-about hits that commercial streaming services put out. Take Bridgerton, for example, which is a Netflix show based on a book series by Julia Quinn. Librarians are finding ways to connect with their patrons about this wildly popular show, even if they can’t necessarily hand them DVDs of it or recommend it as part of their streaming collection.

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A Librarian Looks at Oscars 2022: Inclusive Stories, Exclusive Access

A slate of genre-diverse movies representing people from Japan and Ireland as well as Afro-Latinas and LGBTQ+ actors and plotlines, thrillers, science fiction, biopics, noirs, musicals, Westerns, and earth-destroying meteors finds a place among the 2022 Academy Award nominees. Something for everyone, it seems. Unless everyone includes those who don’t have access to the internet or are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

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How Streaming Platforms Reinforce Inequity in Public Access to Entertainment

Accessibility in media entertainment is increasingly becoming more difficult for libraries to achieve in a streaming-heavy world. Equitable access demands physical materials. Digital is not the panacea, but instead the great divider. Who deserves access to entertainment in the 21st century? If you ask the streaming services, the answer is only those who can afford it.

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Why Librarians Love Movies

When all of the politicking and lack of inclusivity of the Oscars gets you down, it’s a good time to remind yourself why you fell in love with movies in the first place. Here are some librarians’ thoughts on why movies are important to them.

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Keeping Up With the Urbanites: The Importance of Popular Culture in Rural Libraries

Libraries are being squeezed nationally with the unceasing growth of technology and widespread ignorance regarding the services we provide to those who desperately need them. Access to popular culture is not a luxury but a necessity many take for granted, and it is not equal for all people. Rural public libraries provide a direct line to national conversations that shape the way we function in the world.

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Binge-Watch All Week With RBdigital

Recorded Books has become the first vendor to launch an unlimited streaming video service for libraries. Patrons can use RBdigital to binge-watch streaming videos for free by clicking on the app’s 7-day access pass (for available titles). When the week is up, they get an alert, and they can check out the pass again if need be. And libraries can save the money they would have spent on pricey individual videos.