Everything you Need to Know About Libby by OverDrive
Do you love Libby? Because we sure do! Libby by OverDrive is a free, magical app, filled with all kinds of eBooks and eAudiobooks and magazines. You can borrow titles from OverDrive, place holds, make wish lists, track your reading journey, add tags, and organize and sort your history. You can do SO MANY THINGS!
Saying Goodbye to the OverDrive App and the "Recommend to Library" Feature
Libby is replacing the OverDrive app. It provides the best reading experience. That’s why in late April 2023, the legacy OverDrive app will be discontinued. But don’t worry, we have everything you need to know about Libby right here!
With the discontinuation of the legacy OverDrive app in late April 2023, OverDrive is also discontinuing the "Recommend to Library" feature across all platforms. You can still request titles for purchase through our website using the Submit a Suggestion, opens a new window feature! All you need is your library card and PIN, and you can request up to fives items a month.
Getting Started in Five Minutes or Less
Here’s how you can get started with Libby in five minutes or less!
- On your mobile device, go to the Apple App store or Google Play store to download Libby or visit Libby’s web-based experience: libbyapp.com.
- Search for the Edmonton Public Library in the list of libraries, and sign in with your library card and PIN.
- Start browsing! Pick a title and tap Borrow to start reading.
New to Libby: Notify Me Deep Search
Now available in Libby is a new tag using their smart tag system, called "Notify Me: Deep Search". This will allow you to discover new titles not yet part of our OverDrive collection and be alerted if we have the title in our collection in the future:
- If you search for a title, author or series and it returns no results, Libby will automatically expand into a deep search to display relevant titles that are not yet in our collection, but are available in the greater OverDrive catalogue. You can then add a Notify Me smart tag to the title to be advised if we add the title to our OverDrive collection.
- If you run a search that returns fewer than 100 results, you can manually apply a new filter (again, called deep search) to expand your search across the greater OverDrive catalogue. Again, you can then add a Notify Me smart tag to the title to be informed if we add the title to our OverDrive collection.
Once you add the Notify Me tag, you will get a notification in your Libby by OverDrive app if we added the title to our OverDrive collection. From the notification, you can choose to place a hold or borrow the title, depending on its availability. The title will NOT automatically be placed on hold for you. To learn more about app notifications, visit the Libby Help website.
Please Note: Adding a Notify Me smart tag does not guarantee we will purchase the title due to budgetary constraints and purchasing guidelines.
You can read more about adding Notify Me tags by visiting the Libby Help website.
Libby Highlights
Whether this is your first time using Libby, or you’re already besties, you’ll love learning about these awesome features:
- Use tags to organize your titles, e.g., “Book Club” or “To Read”
- Use Notify Me smart tags on magazines to get notifications when new issues come out
- Or use Notify Me smart tags, opens a new window to be alerted when a title you are looking for is added to our collection
- Allow push notifications to your mobile device so you never miss a hold
- Use the Deliver Later feature on a hold that’s ready for you, but you aren’t quite ready for it yet
- Read a title using a screen reader, turn on dyslexic font, use night mode and learn about other accessibility features available in Libby
Libby Help
There are lots of resources available to help you on your Libby journey. Watch this video from OverDrive to learn the basics, like how to navigate the app and borrow titles, and start reading!
You can also read through these FAQs from OverDrive about Libby to learn more, or visit the EPL FAQ page. Libby also has its own Help website, where you can find instructions on every feature available in Libby!
