How to create your own Hallmark Channel

Over the years I have come to appreciate the comforting familiarity of a Hallmark movie. Watching two people fall in love, surrounded by supportive family and friends, navigating between careers and relationships, all while attending local festivals and charity events, is a great way to end the day. The Hallmark Channel does a beautiful job of making every environment feel festive, especially around the holidays.

The Mercer County Library System (MCLS) is a great resource for Hallmark Channel fans. Hallmark movies can be watched two ways – on DVDs and through our streaming service hoopla.

For those interested in watching Hallmark movies on DVD, I have a few recommendations. A good way to start looking for DVDs on the MCLS catalog is to type “Hallmark” in the search bar. Limit your results to DVDs by selecting “DVDs” from the drop-down menu to the left of the search bar. Another way is by using the filters sidebar on the left. Simply check the box next to “DVD” in the “Material Type” section and hit the button “Include.” At the time of this writing, MCLS has 350 “Hallmark” designated DVDs, but we are always adding to our collection. “Hallmark Channel” is listed in the catalog as the “Author” for most of the DVDs. Some other “authors” are “Cinedigm,” “Crown Media Productions,” “Hallmark Entertainment,” “Hallmark Home Entertainment,” “Front Street Pictures,” “Artisan Home Entertainment,” and “Shout! Factory.”

Fans of Hallmark Channel movies often have favorite actors or actresses that appear in multiple movies over the years. IMDb even has a page dedicated to 31 “Hallmark Actresses,” which includes names such as Lacey Chabert, Alison Sweeney and Holly Robinson Peete. For those looking for a specific actor or actress, such as Andrew Walker or Luke Macfarlane, type one of their names in the search box on the MCLS catalog and select “DVDs” from the drop-down menu.

To create your own personal Hallmark Channel at home using MCLS DVDs, I also recommend utilizing the “suspend hold” feature of the MCLS catalog. This feature allows patrons to put a hold on a movie today that they would like to pick up days, weeks or even months from now. For example, if today is February 13^th, but I would like to watch this particular movie on March 1^st, I could suspend the hold from today until February 24^th, so the movie could be waiting for me at the Circulation Desk by March 1^st (as long as another patron does not have it checked out).

To suspend a hold, first place a hold on an item. Then go into “My Account” and click on “Holds.” Next check the box next to the movie and click on “Edit/Suspend Hold(s).” The “Start Date” in the pop-up screen should be the current date (in my example that would be February 13, 2023). The “End Date” should be close to the date you would like to watch the movie (in my example that would be February 24, 2023). It is important to give MCLS a few days for the movies to be processed, so I tend to end my hold suspensions a couple of business days before I would like to view the movie. If you have 20 movies you would like to watch each week, you can schedule them to arrive once a week just in time for movie night.

Hallmark Channel movies are also available on the MCLS virtual branch through hoopla. hoopla is a digital media service that can be accessed via the MCLS website or through the downloadable hoopla app (for mobile devices). Once logged in, enter “Hallmark” in the search box and select “Movies” from the drop-down menu. To further refine results, click on a Hallmark movie, such as Jingle Bell Bride, and then click on “Hallmark” (in blue text) underneath the movie title. This will bring up all the movies listed under the heading “Hallmark.”

Just like with the DVDs, it is also possible to search by actors or actresses, such as Janel Parrish or Rome Flynn, on Hoopla. Once a movie has been selected, click “Borrow.” hoopla movies are available for three days once borrowed, so it is important to only borrow the movie when ready to watch it. To save a movie suggestion for later, you can add the item to your favorites by clicking on the heart icon in the upper right-hand corner next to the social media icons.

These techniques can be applied to any of the movies in the Mercer County Library System catalog and hoopla. For example, if I could not make it to the Black History Month Film Screening series at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch but would still like to watch the movies, I could reserve Judas and the Black Messiah, Nope, and Respect DVDs from the MCLS catalog and suspend the holds to when I’ll be able to watch them.

The staff at the Reference Desk is always happy to help with any of these procedures as well. Please give us a call or stop by your local branch’s Reference Desk for assistance placing holds, suspending holds, using hoopla or any other reference question.

- by Julia, Lawrence Headquarters Branch