Libby is a College Bookworm’s Best Friend
By Ashley Hagan
Back in high school, I stumbled across Libby by accident and consequently fell down a rabbit hole of ebooks. Maybe that wasn’t the best given how much homework I had, but suddenly I had access to more books without the requisite library trips and obligatory free hand to carry around the two latest Cassandra Clare tomes.
An app from the digital library platform Overdrive, Libby allows readers to borrow ebooks or audiobooks from their public library and read them using the app or even through Kindle. For those who want to read books on their laptop, Overdrive itself remains an option. (However, for those who read on the go, you can only download the books through the Libby app, not from the website.)
As a college student, there’s a good chance you’re far away from your local public library, where you previously had access to shelves upon shelves of paperbacks and hardcovers. (Even if you come from a neighboring county, living on or near campus might make traveling to your local library time-consuming at the very least. There’s no DoorDash for library books.) Or maybe you found a home in Kindle and Audible but you’d rather have access to a totally free collection first. That’s where Libby comes in.
An app from the digital library platform Overdrive, Libby allows readers to borrow ebooks or audiobooks from their public library and read them using the app or even through Kindle
No matter where you are, all you need is a public library card to get access to everything they have to offer. (If you have cards from multiple libraries, you can add and manage them all.) Books that your library doesn’t own can be requested for purchase, and you’ll be right in line to get them.
Just like the physical library, you can place several holds at once and get notified once your book is ready. Unlike the physical library, it’s totally okay to highlight and comment on the pages of your ebook. You can customize tags to organize your TBR piles and those books you really wish you could read again for the first time.
While this may not be the most relevant to students, Overdrive technically provides another convenient way to get ebooks for a few weeks of class. Need a classic, or nonfiction, or really just anything, depending on your major? (Some Honors classes, like Medicine in Literature, provide a good mix.)
Unlike the physical library, it’s totally okay to highlight and comment on the pages of your ebook.
Your library might have a copy for you to take off its digital hands. It’s not as reliable as buying or renting the book, but if VCU Libraries doesn’t have it, you might want to start looking. (While Project Gutenberg might be more reliable for classics, Overdrive’s interface for ebooks is so much friendlier.)
Of course, many avid bookworms probably already know of Overdrive and Libby. Maybe you used to devour library books in between school-assigned Shakespeare and The Crucible. Maybe you loved it, but in the rush of college you’d forgotten about the joy of reading – be it hard-hitting nonfiction, pulse-pounding mysteries, or indulgent young adult.
A good book can whisk you away from your work for a few hours the way a TV show can. Let this be the nudge you need to get back to the pages. And if you were never a reader, go give it a chance the next time you want to procrastinate but don’t want to mindlessly scroll on TikTok. What do you have to lose?
Photo courtesy of Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay