What is the next best thing to going to the library? Having the library come to you! That is the magic of Libby. If you have not yet discovered the Libby App, don’t wait another minute. All you need is a library card from your local library. With it, you have access to all the e-books and audio books from your library consortium which are downloaded immediately to your app once you check them out. If you have multiple devices, download the app to each one and when you begin reading a book on your tablet and then switch to your phone, the app opens the book to where you were reading on your tablet. It syncs across all your devices–so great!
I do not have a library in my small town, so Libby is a lifesaver for me. I originally accessed Libby with my bookmobile card but I now have a card from the library in a neighboring town which gives me access to more books and places me higher in line when I put a book on hold. This library allows me to have up to ten books on hold and up to ten books checked out at time. Each library determines the number of books you can check out or put on hold at a time. You can also access Libby through more than one library. I am currently researching other libraries to decide which other one to get a library card from. The benefit of this is access to more books more quickly. Sometimes the hold lines are very long for a book at one library but may be considerably shorter at another one. While libraries do charge non-residents for library cards, some libraries offer a digital only card at no cost. As the name implies, you only have access to digital content and cannot check out any physical copies. Since I don’t live very close to my library, the digital only card works perfectly for me.
I must admit that I resisted e-books for a long time, much preferring to read physical copies. It took some time, but I am now completely converted and do the majority of my reading with either an e-book or audio book. Checking out a book, having it appear on your device and then being able to return it to the library when finished with the click of a button is amazing. Libby truly is magical!