The Read With Us Lounge: A Libby Update

If you use Libby to borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your library, there’s a new feature you might start noticing, and it’s a really good one because it’s now much easier to search and borrow from other library networks that have reciprocal borrowing agreements with your home network.

First, a little explanation, because this is one of those behind-the-scenes library things that most people probably have no reason to know about. Many library networks have agreements with other networks that allow their patrons to borrow from each other’s digital collections. So even though you have a library card from your hometown library, that card may give you access to ebooks and audiobooks owned by several other library networks.

Up until now, you had to know which other networks you were eligible to use and manually add each one as a library in the Libby app. Then, if the book you wanted wasn’t available through your home network, you could search those other networks individually. That was okay, but you had to know the option existed in the first place, and it was cumbersome.

Now Libby does that work for you.

When you search for a book, Libby will automatically search the partner library networks available to you. If another network has the book, Libby can let you know that it’s available there and that you can borrow it using your regular library card. It’s also significant that Libby still searches your home network first. That way, if your own library or library network owns the title, you maintain the borrowing and holds priority you’re supposed to have as a local patron.

Ebooks and audiobooks are expensive for libraries, and digital licensing works very differently from buying a physical book. No individual library or library network can own everything. Reciprocal borrowing lets libraries stretch those collections further and gives readers more opportunities to find the books they want.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that the wildly popular new release with a six-month waiting list is suddenly going to be sitting there waiting for you. But it does mean that when your network doesn’t have something, Libby can now essentially say, “Hey, one of your partner networks does, and your library card works there.”

You may see a welcome message in Libby announcing the new feature. Or you might not notice anything until you search for a book and discover that Libby has found a copy for you somewhere else. Either way, it’s a great update because it takes a library service that already existed and makes it much easier for people to actually use it.

And it’s another reminder that your library card probably does a whole lot more than you think it does.