Libby, by OverDrive App Reviews

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Libby Rating as compared to Cloud Library. I give Libby a 5 star rating. It was so very easy to work with, so easy to figure out. I never had to request help from the library staff. I have read more than 60 audio books using Libby App. Search is easy. Returns are automatic or if you want to return early, no problem it is a simple procedure. Hold worked without a hitch. I cannot praise this App. Enough. Port Saint Lucie Libraries has now switched us to "Cloud Library"for all audio books. I have had one problem after another with this "Cloud Library". App. First of all I cannot seem to set my setting the way I would like. I accidentally requested an e-book on this app. And couldn't figure out how to return it. It was on the app. Showing overdue for awhile, may still,be,out there somewhere. I did go to the library and try to get help, however there seems to be only one person who can help, and she had not responded to my request for help and it has been 2 weeks. And, the gentleman with whom I spoke when I went to the library tried to convince me that it was NOT possible to borrow an ebook in Cloud Library even tho I have a photo of that book indicating that it is in an overdue status. I am looking forward to the day I am asked to review "Cloud Library", I will go into more depth re: my problems working with this App.

Love using the Libby app!. I love books in any form and Libby has them all. Lately I have been doing a lot of audiobooks and the selection is fantastic. The settings allow you to narrow your search by title, author, subject, audience, etc. You can borrow multiple books and also place several books on hold. The app alerts you when one of the books you placed on hold is ready to borrow. What if you have too many books you want to read right now? Not a problem! You can have it delivered again in 7 days. This is a feature I really appreciate! If you want a book to read right now, there is an Available Now section on the home page. You can narrow down your search and start scrolling. Unless I’m looking for a specific author, that’s usually where I start. Another thing I like about this app is tagging the books I’ve read. I have made several tags using different emojis. As I’m scrolling through books I can instantly see books I have read and what I thought of them based on my tag. I can also tell if I borrowed a book and returned it because my shelf was pretty full. I would also like to say that I have saved so much money using Libby! I used to buy several extra book credits every year through audible and now I don’t have to📚🎧📱🆓

Simple, Easy, Awesome. This app is a literal treasure for anyone who enjoys audiobooks. I find Amazon’s pricing model to be out of whack and their stranglehold on the audiobook industry to be downright oppressive. I discovered this app and after a little legwork all done online to get a membership card for my local library, I was listening to audiobooks from my backlog in no time. The selection isn't quite as extensive as Audible for obvious reasons, but the vast majority of titles are available. The only other caveat is that sometimes books (available in both kindle or audio format) are in use by another user and you will need to put your name on a reservation list. Depending on how many people are ahead of you in the cue, it could be anywhere from 14-21 days before you can take it out for personal use. I have absolutely no problem with this however. I just move on to the next title I’m interested in. It’s actually kind of fun when you get a notification a couple days or weeks later that your book is available. The process reminds me very much of the good old days of actually going to the library. I honestly can’t recommend this app enough. In a world where companies are constantly trying to nickel and dime you through every step of the process, it’s nice to know that books and the endless knowledge and entertainment they provide, are still available for free for anyone who is seeking them out.

My two years with Libby. Before Libby two years ago, I had not read a book online. I had not used a digital device for recreational reading. Upon joining a bookclub and needing a certain book immediately and being told that online was the only way to start for that book, the reference desk librarian at my new library in a new city put a reading app on my smartphone so that I could start reading the book when I went home. (The app was for Libby.) My mind told me that reading a book on a phone would be tortuous, slow, frustrating, and might give me headaches. Two years later half of the books I read are online using Libby with my phone. None of my apprehensions came true. The Libby app has enough features for me to make the reading effortless. The selection of books to read is great, diverse, and current. Of the 15 books that I decided to check out via Libby, she had 13 of them. The two were a little older and a little specialized. So Libby has been a wonderful resource for me. I thank my library system for making Libby available to its members. As I understand Libby, it is the programming one uses to access and read online books, but is not the online books themselves.

Great app with decent features. I’ve used this app for just over a year and have borrowed hundreds of books. I use it to listen to books while working, driving, getting stuff done, or just chilling. Like a regular library, if there are books that you would like to borrow, but are currently in use by someone else, you can place a hold on them. The app tells you approximately how long the wait will be, and can borrow the book automatically if there is space on your shelf. It keeps a record of what you’ve borrowed, but tags you place on books either don’t last for extended periods of time, or there’s a limit to how many you can have. Unfortunately, it doesn’t identify books that you’ve borrowed while browsing for something new. You have to review your history to see if you’ve borrowed a book previously. Also, the app will show all titles that they have on record, including those not available through the library card(s) you have on record. However, you can’t read the description of books that are not available to you to borrow. In general this is an easy to use app and fairly intuitive. When using an audio book, it will continue to play even while using another app or the screen is off.

Highly Recommend Libby to EVERYBODY!!. I absolutely love Libby! This app is a fantastic source of knowledge, and all the literature I could possibly dream of. I’m grateful for finding it. With my library card, I easily gain access to the plentiful selection of books in my local library! This is wonderful in moments, especially those we’re in now, facing corona virus, but also if you cannot get to a library for any reason other than that there after. The simple curtesy of lending goes far too unnoticed these days and this was such a creative idea to bring our library’s into our homes! I highly recommend this app to all who loves to read, and for those who intend to put the book back on the shelf when finished. I love that there are audiobook’s as well! This is highly appealing and makes it easier to get through books quickly but also for those with children AND for children— Essentially those that are too busy to read. I am able to play the audio and the book is read aloud to me making me able to do my work, housework, and even shower while listening! Thank you to the developers of Libby and the team who made this possible!! I am so happy that this app was made in an easy to use format and accessible to everyone!! From the simple appealing layout to the easy accessibility and attention put into detail, this app was clearly well thought out and I could tell!

Really good. I’ve had this app for three years and it is the best, the only two things I have to complain about is that on some good or more grown up books (Since I guess that adults use this more than kids or teenagers) you have to wait for over six months or sometimes it even says unknown wait and that for a book series, the whole series may not be available. But it’s like a online library and for some books it has said that wait time is two weeks but then after a few days of putting a hold on it, I got to borrow them. You can adjust the text side and also change the background from white or black and it even suggests books for you, like sunshine state or books picked by librarians or best sellers. I don’t usually write reviews but this app deserves one, it may not have all books or you have to put a hold on a book but it is still pretty great. I can read books that I can’t get, like if I have the first book of a series but not the second then maybe I can search it up and read it on Libby. It’s even better during this time when we can’t go out that much, a phone or tablet is easier to clean than a hands on book (even though I do like those better). I’m a twelve year old bookworm and this is a great app.

Fantastic interface. I’ve only browsed one ebook sample but have listened to several audiobooks and the interface is leaps and bounds better than Hoopla and OverDrive. Cons: I’d give it a 5th star if the sleep timer for audiobooks had more than the 30 minute option (custom timer would be best along with 15 minute intervals up to an hour, then 30 minute intervals thereafter), the UI colors could be customized (at the least a dark mode, but I’d also like to change the blurred background color for audiobooks while in landscape mode), and I could customize my library card color tags/icons? (a minor gripe but two of my cards are too similar in color). I’m also not a fan of the settings menu but I can’t put my finger on why right now... Pros: The book layout is great (Hoopla doesn’t even do landscape or two page mode🤬). As a whole, the Libby interface puts books at your fingertips quickly and offers a sleek & modern yet minimalist design that appeals to the eyes. The sort/refine/preferences works well although an ability to sort series by order in the series both ascending and descending is missing. The ability to sync Libby across multiple devices is FANTASTIC (again, looking at you Hoopla) and saves the hassle of logging in on each device and manually downloading each book (again, Hoopla, sup?). The audio/book sample feature (Hoopla comeon!) is conveniently placed, as is the book sample, review, and jacket information.

Wonderful app.. I cannot begin to say enough about how wonderful this app is and just how much it has meant to me to have access to an unlimited endless supply of books at my fingertips any time if the day or night. There are so many times I’ve wanted to read something new or different and haven’t been able to get out and go to my local library and I couldn’t afford to go out and buy those books so this app is perfect for anyone who loves to read but can’t always go to the library or buy new books. It’s even better because I can take whatever book I am reading with me wherever I go without losing my place in the story. If someone else has already checked out what your wanting to read, you can always put it on hold and as soon as it becomes available the app notifies you and you can check it out. If your not finished reading it you can always renew your loan or return it early if you finish it ahead of time. I’ve recommended it to everyone I know that loves to read. I don’t think anyone will be disappointed by choosing to download this app and use it if they have a love of reading especially if you can’t always go to your local library.

Nice to have, but could have some major improvements.. 1) it’s too easy to accidentally return books. A simple bump of a button, or my kid swiping the wrong way, or my phone being unlocked while carrying, and it returns the book. If there’s a hold you can’t get it back, and if you re-borrow it, it counts as one of your loans. everything else gives you the “are you sure?” Msg, this should too. 2) due dates are off by a day. It will tell you you have 3 days left, but it returns midnight of the third day. Should be more specific on when it is due, like a date and time. 3) recommendations and filters are poor. Historical fiction is 99% war romance. You can’t really search by topic, or gender or author, or date of publication. The genres are extremely broad and vague. 4) young children’s books or recordings count as a whole loan, which is dumb, bc you usually only need it for one night. You also can’t “exchange” a book if it’s terrible, and there are some real stinkers on here. Especially for young kids. Some of these are the equivalent of an ESL person practicing on LibriVox, which is wonderful way to practice, but these are not published books, and not what I want to spend a library loan on. I feel like if you borrow it for less than 24 hours, it shouldn’t count against your loans, as long as you return it early.

Everything about it is awesome. This app is the best so I was looking in the App Store and I was trying to find another app but this came across and like, I love reading so I clicked on it and read the reviews and all the reviews were positive so I downloaded it. My family doesn’t have a lot of books on hand and so we constantly have to go to the library and sometimes it can be kinda annoying but I’ve had this app for a few weeks now and I haven’t gone to the library ever since. I just love love love love love this app so much I’m only 11 yrs so I have to go to school and do homework and I also have to go to after school and that goes until 6 so by then it’s evening and I don’t have a lot of time to go to the library after that cuz by then it’s almost dinner but once I got this app I just read on my phone and it’s just so much more easier and it saves a lot of time I once had this other reading app and I gave one star cuz literally right after I borrowed something an ad popped up; ON A READING APP!!!!! And I’m like, DUDE; seriously?!! I just wanna read!!!! Ok I’m WAAAAY of topic but anyway, this app is so so so so so so great and I would DEFINITELY recommend it😁

PERFECTION!!!. I LOVE ❤️ having Libby and so many libraries available to me-anytime and anywhere! I am one of those people who could have more library fines than car payments! I ALWAYS borrowed books with the BEST intentions 😇 of returning them on time💯…just NEVER succeeded lol. I love reading and more I 💜love reading Book Series📚 Many times reading a whole book📖in just hours or a day so of course traveling back⬅️and forth➡️to library was not very convenient🥺especially when I would owe so many fees💰all the time from borrowing multiple books in a series. Now I NEVER EVER EVER have to worry about paying another book fine or replacing a book the dog🐶chewed or a book my little ones threw in the pool 😱. The only problem now is trying to figure out🤔 what to read haha but when I do figure it out Thankfully I can simply log in here and lose myself in endless options of 📖people, 📘places and 📔things…new📚, old📚, fantasy📕, reality📘, scary📔, happy, self-motivating/improvement📘 and the list could go on and on♾. I will continue to recommend this app every chance I get. How could I not when they have made it so fast, easy and convenient to use? Stop🛑making your life so hard people❣️…GET this 5⭐️app now!!!! I promise you will ENJOY it. 🤓📖

User friendly, but MAJOR drawback. I work in a library, and borrow audiobooks and ebooks myself frequently. Former Overdrive user, now use Libby most of the time because it is more user friendly and streamlined. However, there are two big problems that mean I can’t get rid of Overdrive just yet (I switch between the two for searching). 1) Biggest problem: if you use more than one library account (if you belong to different library systems), and you place a title on hold through 1 library, Libby will not allow you to access that title through another library, EVEN IF THAT TITLE IS AVAILABLE through the other library. If you are using Libby, you must be very careful to NOT place a hold until you’ve checked all libraries you belong to. Otherwise you’ll be waiting weeks to read a book you could have accessed immediately. You also can only place a hold on a particular title through 1 library system. 2) Through Libby you can not recommend titles for your library to buy. Our library will automatically buy an item once a certain number of requests have been made. Too bad you can’t request a purchase through Libby! I do find Libby more user friendly and recommend it to library patrons who only use 1 library, and use it myself most of the time, but the above issues are major ones for me still.

Thank you, Libby app team. I love the Libby app so much - I always am recommending it to family/friends/acquaintances/etc. It’s really reignited a love of reading books that had gone away for me for a while. It’s delightful to use —so many light years beyond what I expect of public service websites. I hope more public services follow in Libby’s path. I know this is counterintuitive, but I’ve found that I actually *like* some limiting aspects of the library system. Yes, if I search for a book and see it’s a long wait list to be able to read it, I’m a little bummed - but then I love getting the notification weeks (or months) later that it’s now available. By that time I’d forgotten I asked for it so it’s like a new surprise 😅. Also, I’m finding that the limited loan time period actually helps force me to finish books, unlike some physical books I’ve bought that have a tendency to stay on my shelf for years. The audiobook streaming UX is so wonderful too, feels modern and just like a (paid) music or podcast app. The fact that all of this is FREE with a library card is so incredible. Really want to say thank you to the team that builds Libby - I work as a product manager in software and I know how much hard work it takes to get something this right. 💛

Perfect. I’ve listened to podcasts for years but have recently had difficulty finding the quality of content I used to be able to easily find. So grateful I found this app when I did, as there is no end to the amount of quality (audio) books in a library. Thank you so much! UPDATE 9/5/22 I still love & cannot live without it, but PLEASE fix whatever has happened (I assume on last update?) with the tags. It used to be so easy to add/create/manage tags, and now it’s just awful. I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’d change it. I am not stupid, but pretty much have to go to the help section to get instructions to remind me now how to do it. In addition, I had a list of probably 20-30 books tagged as “want to read,” that just disappeared. I’ve tried to recreate this tag/list now 4 times, and every time my phone turns off, it logs me out of the app and in turn, erases my created tags/list. THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING!! I do not want to hog books & be forced to check them out and then sit on them while I finish others just b/c I cannot depend on my saving of it to a “want to read” list. ALSO, if it’s going to log me out every time my phone shuts off, then PLEASE make it where you can scan your library card to login rather than having to drag the card out, and type in all the numbers. Other than those glitches, I truly love the app. 8/5/22- PLEASE bring back ratings on books!

Love using Libby. It’s great because when you finish a book in the middle of the night or during a time you can run to get a new book you just go to your app and find a new book. I find myself reading while waiting at appointments, drive throughs, waiting in the kids at practices, or during 1/2 time, at night when the house is quiet, during my lunch break, while walking on a treadmill, while getting my hair done, the times that I am able to pick up my iPad, or phone and read a quick chapter or have become endless. I’ve read while waiting on a lunch/dinner date, when waiting on my car to be cleaned or in between classes. I’ve read 13 books in 2 months. Now if Libby will start including AR levels, and points and a way to search for specific level of books so my kids can use it that would be great. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I tell my daughter I wish you brought your book you could squeeze in a few chapters. Please Libby make this student friendly so kids can take advantage of the books also. Right now my daughter will find a book then look to see if it’s a AR book and then it either isn’t AR or it isn’t her level. It would be so nice if she could just search her level and see what her options are. Please Libby add at levels and points to the info of the book and search.

Love this app!. This app allows access to thousands of audio and ebooks via your local library for free. You are able to borrow each book for 7 days but can renew if there is not a wait list. You have the opportunity to read a sample of the book before deciding whether or not you wish to sign it out. If you do not already have a local library card this app walks you through the application process, helps you ascertain a card, and makes library books available for immediately use once the process is completed. Your library card is mailed to your home within a week or so. I have been reading books on my phone for years because it is convenient to have access to reading material wherever you go. Thanks to Libby I have literally saved hundreds of dollars as I no longer have to purchase books on iBooks or Kindle. I have even been able to locate some authors that are out of print. I also love that this app keeps track of the books I have already read for me, so I don’t have to worry about starting a book only to realize a few chapters in that I have already read it. Lol. In addition, I was able to obtain a New York City Library Card as well. This has given me access to even more titles and allowed me to borrow books for an extended time.

Hate New Layout. I started reading with Libby March 2020 and have read nearly 350 books. I absolutely loved this app. However, I opened it today and the entire layout has changed and has many problems. I have my preferences set for newest mystery books to be listed first. Instead I’m getting recommendations for books published 3 or more years ago. I also hate that it no longer shows if I have already borrowed/read a book on that same list. I have to click on the title and only then can I see if I already read it. Before I could just quickly run down the list, skipping over any book that I’ve already read. I also do not like the way it’s set up on the other list showing what you borrowed and returned. You can’t see the title as it just shows a circle so small that you can’t see any information. You have to click on the circle to get the book name and author. I am so disappointed. I never thought I would read anything but an actual paper book, and over the past year have come to love the convenience of Libby. With the new changes, I’m not sure if I will continue to use this app as it does some of the same things as before, but with extra steps. Plus the lack of books listed in order of date published and then only given 70 titles is infuriating. Really disappointing.

Irritating UI. My library just switched from RBDigital to Libby. First off, I was disappointed there was not a way to import my existing subscriptions / lists. Next, the browsing feature is maddening: books and single-issue publications are mixed in with periodicals. Making matters worse, after ~10 screens the entire list automatically “refreshes” for no reason — I was still reviewing results of my original search — and auto-scrolls back to the TOP of the list. Oh joy, now I get to try to remember which items I’ve already tagged as I scroll past them all again. Really annoying and error-prone. Then, when borrowing and beginning to read an item there are LONG delays when trying to flip past the first page. But don’t worry, the app “helpfully” remembers all your attempted page turns while it’s stalled... so when the new pages are FINALLY downloaded it rapidly executes ALL those page flips you thought it was missing...and you’re suddenly on page 13! Really dumb. And then if you happen to power off while zoomed in on a particular page... surprise! you’re on a completely different (random?)page when you power back on. Suffice to say, I see MUCH room for improvement, and much preferred RBDigital. But I must use what my library has chosen. And it does “work” (to a low standard) for reading periodicals from the comfort of my home... so I’m grateful for that. I hope the developers will improve the app. It can be so much better!

The Best App. You know how every once in a while you think to yourself: “maybe all these podcasters are onto something and I should subscribe to audible after all” but then you google it and it’s money and you think “I don’t have money to spend on this I don’t even know if I will use it” so you just feel a little sad because you’re not even sure you like audiobooks but some part of you feels like your missing out? Have I got a solution for you! This app lets you listen to FREE AUDIOBOOKS! Good popular ones too! Libraries are amazing but sometimes inconvenient. This app makes your library’s content accessible! You can borrow books and read them on your kindle and you can put your kindle on airplane mode so the books stay there past the return date and you don’t even need to feel guilty about it because whoever is on hold still gets access to the book whether it is sneakily still on your device or not. I’m not a great review writer, I don’t write a lot of reviews, but this app is honestly the best thing in the world please do yourself a favor and use it. Free books, audio books, magazines (though I’ve never used it for magazines but theoretically you can), it’s life changing. You do need a library card, but you should probably get one of those anyways libraries are the bomb.

Great App, Great Service. Libby is an essential app for book lovers, particularly during this time when many libraries are closed to visitors. I have been using the app for several years and always been happy with it. Recently, updates to the app have made it even better—particularly the option to have a hold delivered later (useful when multiple holds come available at the same time). The app is easy to use for reading and listening on the go, but I also love the ease of sending ebooks to my Kindle when I want a larger screen. (One downside is not being able to send audiobooks to Audible, which would enable whispersync between ebook and audiobook for readers who are doing both, but I suspect that’s an issue with Amazon’s audiobook model rather than the library.) I like being able to track how long I will need to wait for a book (Libby often overestimates the wait time, which I appreciate because then I’m pleasantly surprised when the book becomes available early). I appreciate being able to link multiple library cards in one app and switch between them easily. When it comes to potential negatives for some readers (such as long wait times for popular books), it’s important to remember that those issues are just part of being a library reader rather than buying all your books—not an issue with the app itself. Go ahead and place the hold; high demand for a book often encourages public libraries to purchase additional copies (or digital licenses) for the book.

Libby is Amazing. Using this app thru my local library I can listen to books without visiting the library in person. The number of books I have access to is astounding and the quality of the recordings and sound is usually great. Libby allows a search for books by author, title, subject and narrator. I check out a couple of books, put a few on hold if they are already checked out and download and start listening to a book in minutes. I listen as I work around the house and yard, while driving and doing errands. Once the book is downloaded I can listen to it without internet connection. So I can take it camping or driving through the desert. I use headphones to keep my hands free for other tasks and to allow those around me to choose their own sounds to listen to. I have been using this app for a few years and listen to approximately five or six books a week and review a couple of magazine in electronic print format on my phone or tablet each month. When I am curious about a book I often read or review it on Libby then buy it if I find that a large book format is better or if I want to have my own copy for reference. Recipe books, how-to and pattern books are often better to have hard copies of. I would be lost without Libby!

Crashes often. Works well for reading ebooks and listening to audiobooks, which unfortunately is only about 10-20% of what I want to do. I am mainly interested in the magazine availability. My library previously went through rb digital for this, which had issues of its own but was functional and useful. The transition to Libby was initially fine, the controls are intuitive and the borrowing process is not a major problem for me. The issue is that when actually reading a magazine, the app crashes repeatedly, even if the magazine is already completely downloaded. This totally interrupts reading/browsing and makes the app really unpleasant to use. Sometimes it is a minor inconvenience when it only crashes about 2-3 times in the approximately 20 minutes it takes me to read a magazine. Other times it will barely show me the cover page for 30 seconds before crashing. Again, this is when the thing I am trying to read is fully downloaded and the app is not in the process of downloading anything else. My best guess is that the page turning animation graphics are too much for my iPad to handle, but the previous service did that too and this same device was able to handle it. Really wish this would be fixed because the local libraries are not fully open so this is my only option currently.

Read or listen to books anywhere you are. While on vacation, on road trips, we find short and long books to listen to as a family. The books download easily, with cell service or WiFi, so that when we had no cell service or WiFi we could keep listening. I also listen to books on my daily walks. The selection of titles is good, and I’d give 5 stars if Libby had everything we wanted, when we wanted it. Still, we always find an enjoyable book to listen to. If we can’t finish in 7 days, the loan period, we try to renew. We get frustrated if someone is waiting for the title - which means we can’t renew it because it’s a popular title. Choose wisely if you want to hear the entire book in 7 days. When I walk and listen, if I have the print version & can’t renew the audio, I just finish the book by reading it. I can’t remember if you are limited to so many titles per month per library card, but that’s why everyone in the family has a card. Sometimes we all put a hold on the same book at the same time so that as one finishes it, the next one checks it out - if it’s his/her time to get it from the holds. Doesn’t always work, but when it does (for the really long audio books), it’s perfect!

Actually have time for books now. I hardly have the free time to set aside to even physically visit my local libraries. I haven’t been able to read leisurely for years because of my work schedule. My wife recommended this app, as she mostly checks out audiobooks and listens to them at work. I wish I had taken her up at her first recommendation of Libby, but eventually she got me to just use her account to listen to audiobooks. The reintroduction quickly propelled me to force some time to get my own library cards in our city and my own account because of the checkout limits, and I’m now able to devour books regularly. Feels like being the little bookworm kid again that I had sorely missed being. While nothing beats being able to actually go into a library myself to browse books, the accessibility of just firing up Libby to peruse available books and have at it is absolutely great! I even love how hassle free returning books is with it being automatic, so there’s never any stress about being late and any incurring fees. Now I’m the one that is trying to get friends and fam to go get some library cards and make use this of this app. Of which, I heavily recommend trying to get as many library cards as you can. It’ll broaden your selection and availability of rentals so much more!

Used to be great! Now declining.. I use Libby a lot. I really enjoy reading the books on Libby. The reason[s] that I gave it only 3 stars is because first of all in their latest update they made the reading tool far more confusing than it needs to be, I’ve used Libby since it was released by Overdrive and they used to be soooooo great until 3w ago. Libby’s new reading tool doesn’t even look more modern! It looks like it from being created in the 21st century to being created in the 90’s. I also don’t understand why their are a certain amount of ebooks for each title and why some books are listed for being placed on hold but no copies are in use and like 6 people have it in on hold! They say “Unknown Wait” but really they should say “Not Available” And not have an option to place it on hold! And back to my question about why their are only a certain amount of copies, I mean... if it’s online shouldn’t their be infinite copies! Libby always had this issue but so did overdrive and kindle so I had dismissed this issue but now with their horrible update they haven’t fixed anything and hopefully in another update they’ll rethink this update, change it back to the original, and fix the holds problems. Libby is a fairly good reading tool but needs a pretty big amount of fixes.

Great—until it isn’t. I have been a faithful user of OverDrive for years and years, and I transferred that joy and faithfulness to Libby several years ago. After all, how much better can it get than bringing my library’s electronic books and audiobooks to me? All in one place? I love the ease of use and the way it can store several library cards at once. I was hoping they would add a feature to allow for searching across multiple libraries at once, but in the meantime I found good workarounds. I kept all my lists and tags there and had quite a history built up, with records of what I have read and an extensive wish list: loved it! Then a few weeks ago, for no reason, Libby kicked me off and deleted all my library cards (and years and years of tags and reading history records with it). I had to re-add all my library cards from scratch. I reached out to customer support and they said that this is a known problem and the only solutions are to either have the app and all records across multiple devices (so I have to buy a new device just for that?) or to export my tag list. This is a KNOWN problem with no solution. And all my history and records are gone, and I don’t know that they can be rebuilt. Bottom line: I still love the app design and usability and it is as great as ever…until it’s not and you lose everything.

I love this app- there are no real downsides. It is almost too perfect. A simple idea at first, just an online library. However, with so many apps where you pay large amounts of money just to get access to audio and digital books, this is the only one I have found that is actually free and amazingly easy to use. Because it is a library app, all you need for it to work is a library card and a library that has an online section. You can check out the audiobooks like a normal library. There are even considerate touches like a timer for sleep, and a manual bookmark. Unlike a physical book, these online one will automatically save your spot even if you have to turn it in, and so when/if you wanted to check it out again you will pickup where you left off! You do have a limit of 7 books checked out at a time, there are waitlists for popular titles, and it automatically returns the title after a certain amount of time (you have control over this) but I see these as minor things, and if you put a hold on a book it will automatically loan it and send you an email/notification. I love this app and would love to rant all day about why. If you are at all considering getting this I would deeply recommend.

FREE ebooks & audiobooks w/a library card. If you don’t have a library card, go get one NOW! Find out where your closest public library is and go there pronto. OK, call first to ask what proof of residency they might need; they’ll probably say just 1-2 pieces of mail showing your name and address. Or maybe your library system has the application on their website. Download the Libby app and select your library from the list of library systems that appears, enter your library card barcode #, and you’re set! If you haven’t read an ebook before, go for it! You can modify background color, text size, font, and even HIGHLIGHT text or bookmark pages—then go to Reader Settings and scroll down to see all your bookmarks and highlighted passages. The app keeps your book settings so you can close and reopen the app as often as you want. (If you have any problems, just call the library helpdesk—that’s free, too!) Your library may have other ebook apps besides Libby. But Libby is hands-down the best of the two i’m familiar with. If you’re more of an audiobook fan, you can check those out, too, via the app. No more driving anywhere—you can check books out & return them in the app! All age groups, all genres. Mind blowing.

UPDATE 6/6/20: new UI = argh /// (previous)Not very dependable. Update June 3, 2020: After finally fixing stability issues from my review below, the app worked fine. I use to listen to audio books mainly. But as of today, June 3, 2020, with their latest update, I’m left perplexed. The new UI is clunky and takes 2-3 taps to do what I could do on screen before. I don’t see any benefits?? It’s not just me getting used to it. It literally takes more steps to do common actions — the exact opposite of what an updated UI should do. Argh. I love the idea of this app but it seems one step forward, two steps back every few months. ===== I use this app during my daily commute and when it works, it works fine. But about 2 out of the 5 days, I get server errors. Whether trying to check out, resume or anything on the app. Extremely frustrating not knowing if I’ll be able to read my book or if I’m locked out. It must happen a lot because on the “report error” page they even have a special message about it. How about fixing it?? I’ve also had problems with audiobooks skipping ahead and making it impossible to scrub back to where it skipped. I updated to the latest version, hoping that helped with all of the above, but it all actually seems to be worse. I can’t open or read any books on my shelf right now, as an example, the third time this week and prompting me to write this review.

This App Is My Favorite!. I am an avid reader, and I would much rather use the public library than buy the books myself. Too many books can get expensive. However, my life gets busy, and I often forget to return my books in a timely manner. Using Libby makes that a non-issue: if I decide I no longer want to read the books, I can easily return them early. Or if I have become distracted, the book is immediately returned on the due date. The convenience of always having my book with my without having to remember anything additional makes my life so much easier for those moments when I get stuck waiting somewhere unexpectedly. The app itself is simple enough to use and easily syncs between devices and the web reader. Genres, authors, and series are clearly cross referenced. The audiobooks connect to my home and car speakers with the same ease as streaming music. Audiobooks usually download to your device while you have them rented, so there is less issues of being out of service range or using up data when on mobile. All in all, Libby has made my live as an active reader better in all the ways. The accessibility means everything to me, and I would strongly encourage it to everyone. Support your local libraries!

Love!. I think it's so cool how you can use this with your library card. This is my go to reading app! I just wish it was available for NOOK tablets. Kind of an old device, but it's sort of a drag to read a book on overdrive and it not be synced up with my libby app therefore it wasn't tracking my reading time. Other than that, love it. Some people are complaining on here that they have to wait 5 months for a book or so... can't you find a book that isn't super popular right now and put a hold on what you want? That's how you discover really good books. Patience and curiosity. I find it super annoying/entitled that people are saying this because eventually it will be your turn, just have patience and read something else. If you want it that bad, buy it 🙄. It's not libby's fault and I think it's also unfair to assume someone isn't reading a book because they're taking their time with it. There are plenty of books out there chill out. I however do think there should be a system though where it detects if a book has been opened frequently or not so then people who do need a book for school or something can get it because its much more needed by them obviously. The reason this is my favorite reading app is because of the synchronization aspect and that it can track your reading time. You can disable that, but personally, its why I love Libby the most. 💜

Finally Reading Consistently Again. I found Libby through the App Stories and it’s been wonderful. Buying books can be costly and storage consuming (physical and in the cloud). I’m not one to browse the library and I have an incredible gift of procrastination that almost guarantees a rented physical book will not get returned on time. But insert Libby and it’s a game changer for me. The ability to rent ebook versions of some books is fantastic and I don’t have to worry about my rental being late because the ebook is automatically returned when my rental period has run out. Every year one of my resolutions is to read more and every year I don’t, until now! The app is compatible with Kindle so I can read books on my personal Kindle device or with the app. It tells you how many copies of a book are available, how many are in use, and an estimated time for how long you have to wait for your copy. I also like that there’s only 21 days to read a book. Having a specific window of time to read a book I’m interested in means that I now rarely put off finishing a book. Plus added bonus many books have audio books and they are free (goodbye Audible!). It’s been awesome to rediscover how enjoyable consuming books can be!

BEST APP FOR READERS. I personally love Libby because it makes it easier and fun to read and for me and some people books hurt my eyes to read because the bright color of the background and the tiny words but Libby can change the text size in any of its books and change the background colors it doesn’t hurt your eyes to read. Plus Lily has a great wide selection of books and it’s and audiobooks and it’s really fun to read on and it’s great for people who love to read but don’t own really good books. And I probably love Libby the most because of its bookmark feature the bookmark feature can save your spot in any book or if you like have an important spot that you wanna remember to go back to your book market and I’ll save all your bookmarks unless you delete the bookmark then you can also highlight important words that will also save and you can and if you If you don’t want to highlight it or a book like it then and like you’ve already read it and you don’t wanna highlight a booklet or if a friend told you about that’s fine but you haven’t gotten to it yet there’s a search for that Libby has like that you can search in the book and you could search any words or sentences and it will show you all of the sentences with that word in it and if you want your kids to spend less time on the iPad and more time reading books a good app for you so. take my advice and down a Libby thanks

One of my absolute top 3 Apps!!. Libby is absolutely fabulous. I recommend it to everyone I know and most people download it and have the same feelings that I do. It’s free, connected to the library and easy to access. Every now and then there are a few glitches but with patience I tend to get it worked out. I wouldn’t trade this app for anything. And before I started really using it I was not into audiobooks at all. I thought that my attention span would be all over the place but with time and continued practice I was able to focus and now I love audiobooks….Lol but not enough to pay for Audible. Now, as soon as someone recommends a book I immediately go to Libby to see if they have it. I love the features like being able to be on the waitlist, being able to set a different date that I want to check out the book, and I even appreciate the two week timeframe that’s causing me to listen to more books and not let them linger and there’s the option to renew. I can’t speak to any customer service issues because I haven’t had any issues. And no, not every title is on Libby but that’s OK because they are so many many many choices. Great Job Libby!!

Libby vs Overdrive. While Overdrive was a bit clumsy, it offered "similar" or opportunity to "recommend " titles when searches produced no result. Libby does not. If no result is found Libby simply cuts you off at the knees. Libby's audiobook scrolling progress bar keeps me confused which direction to move if I want previous or future content. I used Overdrive for many years and appreciate knowing if a book is in my history. Does Libby have this feature? Libby App is a great resource and would like to be able to track how many books I've read/borrowed in my own specific time frame. Say "last month" "last 3 months" "per last year" or a specific year. I think my reading history is lost by moving to Libby. Can you capture this prior to deactivation of Overdrive. Oh almost forgot, I don't need bookmark to tell me it's a bookmark any time I tap. I do think a free library interactive app is most ingenious and commend powers that brought this to fruition! I use it daily. I’m thankful for access each day. Fare thee well my beloved Overdrive you were arguably more nimble than your successor! Libby I'm sure to fully embrace you when forced to do so despite your awkward developmental adolescence. There's room to evolve and I imagine you shall. I’ll stand by your side. ❤️

Quarantine. I really love this and I have found no problems with it yet. This allows me to go to the library during quarantine without leaving my house. I have just one problem...I wish it would let us download movie too for free. That would give it a thousand stars but also one other thing. I have put a hold on a book April 10th there were only two people ahead of me and you can only have it for a week. It is now May 14th. And I have moved up in line to one so I will get the book next. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR A MONTH and it keeps saying “wait time 2 weeks” I am getting so mad about it because either there is a glitch or they are allowing this person to just keep renewing it and renewing it and I’m sooooo mad because I really want to read this book and I placed a hold on something that was 26 weeks and that book is down to 4 weeks so I should have the other book by now but I still don’t have it. You really need to change this because it is not okay that some people can just have it for that long because my guess is they barley read it, they want to read it but they read like a page a day where I can get books done IN a day. So please please please get this fixed and stop letting that person renew it so many times. Once is okay but for me to have it on hold for this long when it just keeps saying 2 more weeks is NOT okay.

Free is the BEST!!. I have been using the Public Library apps for so many years now, first OverDrive and then Libby. I realized that I don’t re-read or re-listen to most books I read. So I reserve my audible account and credits to buy only certain series of books that I love and have already read or listened to multiple times. The Library has a fairly good selection and if you reserve books you want to read they will automatically check out when it’s your turn. It’s a pretty awesome system to get access to for free and I highly recommend it. One thing I discovered is that the local library systems have agreements with each other to allow you to sign up for more than one library card from neighboring counties. I have 3 active library cards which makes it so I have three different collections to view and borrow from. The DC Public Library has different books then Fairfax County or Shenandoah County so if I am listening to a series and DC does not have Book 3 available I can check in Fairfax or Shenandoah Counties. I highly recommend signing up for library cards in the city or towns surrounding your own. Some jurisdictions ask you to pay $20 for the year for a “reciprocal” account but I have not been asked to pay anything because I work in DC and my parents live in Shenandoah County.

Great App For Bookworms!. I love to read. And half the books I read, I don’t actually own. This app has made reading more efficient. It is more efficient to use this app then to go to a physical library. It is entirely free, with no in-app purchases. You can check out almost any book, from the comforts of home. This app works just like a normal library allowing you to place holds, and renew books. You may also pre order books, allowing you to place a hold to read a book for when it comes out. You can also sample a book. This allows you to read a small portion of the book before checking out, or placing a hold. I recommend using this app on an iPad, because the screen is much bigger. Eye strain problems can cause headaches while you read! (And it can be super annoying). You can download books for reading in places with 0 internet connection. All you need to check out a book is a internet connection, and then you can download it. You can choose to read a book you check out on the Libby app, or a Kindle. The search filters are super easy to use, and they are effective to. You can filter by the appropriate audience, format (Ebooks, Read aloud, And Audiobooks), Availability, style, Language, and Genre. You can search by Author, Title, and Series. It also will recommend you with books you may read, based on previous reads. I have been using this app for YEARS. And it has made reading 100% more efficient, and easy. If you are a very avid reader, I recommend this AMAZING App to you!

Any book . . .. The way I use audiobooks is to acquire the book (via library or purchase) and then go to Libby or OverDrive and “borrow” the exact audiobook. Then, I read along in the book while listening to the audiobook. Advantage: I remain focused longer. Words or phrases in a foreign language are pronounced correctly and usually with appropriate accent. And most important, I move right along and finish the book much quicker than otherwise. This allows me to “read” many more books. Another advantage, if the book is read by the author, that’s an “extra.” You feel like you are sitting in their private library, next to their fireplace and having a private audience. It’s very personal. To me, this way of combining both the text and the audiobook book, I get the best of both worlds. When I listen to just the audiobook alone, I find myself drifting and losing my concentration. With the book in front of me and reading along, I remain enthusiastically involved. Say I want to hear or read a sentence or paragraph again - just hit the 15 second repeat button - Voila! Two examples: “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” series. EXCELLENT! All those Swedish addresses and names of places. Second example, any book with necessary minutia such as Ron Chernow’s, “Hamilton.” Both of these books are wonderful on audiobooks. Worked for me! Try it! You might like it . . .

A Great Library App!. I love this app. It’s one of the best ways to connect with my local libraries and read, supporting them, other than going in person. I do have a quality of life suggestion if a developer cares to listen. As it is, long pressing on a word or words lets you select a word to lookup, define, and highlight. It’s done through a small pop-up menu that scrolls in from the bottom. Once you pick a feature, the menu closes out. I often find myself both wanting to define a word and highlight, in either order, and I have to long press a word multiple times to do that because Libby is coded to close out the menu once you pick one of the three options. I’d suggest re-coding the highlight, define and lookup features to close out BACK to the menu that pops up when you long press so users can both highlight, annotate, and define a word all at once without having to continually long press a word. Other than that, I love this app — I use it all the time, and everything I highlight and annotate I export out for my own use. I’ll always prefer supporting my libraries before buying a book, especially from large retailers.

By far my most used app. I’ve had this app for over 3 years but had forgotten about it until the pandemic. I’m an avid reader and buy a lot of books. I don’t remember what triggered it but I checked out a book while on vacation, then another and another. Id forgotten all about using the library to borrow books. So now instead of spending money, I’ve been borrowing. I have a list of books on hold and I read them as they become available. The longest wait was 7 weeks, but since I already had long list of books, I didn’t even notice the wait. A few times, too many books became available at the same time, so I chose for them to be scheduled for a later release date. I also discovered they have audiobooks. Of course they do, it’s the public library... but I’d forgotten. Now I find myself listening to one to two books a week as I go on my daily walks. I feel like a kid in a candy store that’s how much I love this app. I have the opportunity to read and listen to as many books as I like/have the time for. Easy to use and have not encountered any glitches... again, it’s by far my favorite and my most used app. 😊

Convert from OverDrive. Finally I have switched from OverDrive to Libby. I loved the simplicity of OverDrive but eventually Libby’s overall better usability won me over. Libby is a must-have app for any avid reader/audiobook listener. I loved the recent addition of the feature of delivering later, very convenient for those of us who place holds on multiple books since it is difficult to predict when a book will indeed be available. This likely will shorten the overall wait for everyone in the waiting list. I also very much appreciate the ability to view a history of my search terms and it seems to search across all my libraries (significantly improved over OverDrive), although Libby does not clearly indicate whether it does search across libraries. This could perhaps be improved. I would have given a 4.5 rating but there is option for half points. A few improvements are desired. For one, it is never clear to me which direction my finger should slide to forward/rewind, and I often do the opposite, hence taking more time due to the confusion. It would be much better to have clearly indicated rewind/forward direction, e.g., those 15 sec rewind/forward buttons in OverDrive. Another suggestion is to make it easier to access the book details for books on my shelf. Right now ”view title details” is buried several menu clicks deep. I still use OverDrive to recommend books that my libraries don’t have — would be great to be able to do this in Libby.

Fantastic App! Actually free and everything that they advertise. I started using this app because it said that I could borrow for free if I had a library card. I didn’t have one, but after putting my address and email in I was given access through my local library. Since then I have finished 9 books and dont plan on stopping. The app is super easy to use, the loans are very easy to renew if I do go over the 21 day period, and I really enjoy the feature that gives definitions or translations to words and phrases that you highlight in the book. I dont have a Kindle but it offers the option to borrow the book on a Kindle device, I just read on my phone and have had zero issues. I tried an audiobook and they seem to work well, they are less available than the ebooks which is why i dont usually use them. The only complaint I have, and maybe this is just the series that I am reading, but the Books in Series search could be improved, it seems cluttered with a bunch of different versions of the same books and not always in order. To be fair, i am reading the Agatha Christie books and theyve been republished a hundred different ways so maybe im just working with a difficult series. Either way, fantastic app, happy as can be with it, if you want to read ebooks then this app is perfect for you.

Good concept but needs a lot of work. The idea of making libraries accessible from home is an excellent one. However the app itself needs a lot of help. It’s not very intuitive, the icons could be more clear what they represent, just about every time you will have to push the buttons repeatedly before they do what they’re supposed to (i.e. the back or home button, hitting it once does nothing. You’ll have to tap at least twice before it takes you back). And when the buttons DO work, they take you too far back. Not back to the page you were just at, but back to a completely different screen. For example, while searching for a book, often when you click “back” it’ll take you all the way back to the beginning of the search, not to what you searched for last. So you have to reset your filters every. Single. Time. Also, while scrolling, the home/search/back buttons do not follow you, as they do in most, dare I say all, apps and websites. So if you scroll through hundreds or thousands of books and now want to go back and look at another genre or something else, guess who has to scroll ALL THE WAY BACK UP?? So obnoxious and inconvenient. It’s just a lot of things that basic apps and sites have that this one just… doesn’t. For some inexplicable reason. Just doing basic updating would really help this app a lot.

Changed my view on books. I thought I didn’t like reading books because of the mandatory reading they have in high school. I graduated a decade ago with that mindset and didn’t grow out of it until recently when I realized I DO like reading articles/references/etc online and soon got library cards, diving into topics that I actually enjoy and finding variety along the way too! Going from random sites to read scattered bits of information to books that are organized and more in-depth changed my idea of what books are and can be. I love having a library in my pocket and always look forward to that “your hold is available!” notification (,: What’s even cooler too is if you have multiple library cards that have their collections through Libby you can add them all and end up with a huge selection to browse. As you look to borrow books it’ll tell you which libraries offer that item and its availability as well. If you had the same experience from school, give your libraries and Libby a try! They both have so much to offer (your library probably has many resources you didn’t know were available, with a lot being free) and seriously, having a choice in what you’re reading makes a world of difference.

Libby has changed my life. I did not think I enjoyed reading until I discovered audiobooks on the Libby app. I love, love, love listening to audiobooks now. I have an audiobook going every day of my life since discovering this Libby app. I tell everybody that I see with the book in their hand about this wonderful app. You can borrow books from the library to read digitally, you can listen on audiobooks, look at current magazines and watch videos all from your local library. If you do not have a library card from your local library, you can get a digital library card through this Libby app. I listen to my audiobook every day in my car and from my phone. It has opened up a whole new world for me. Best of all, it is completely free. I would’ve never counted myself as a book lover. Audiobooks have changed that for me. I now have favorite authors, favorite genres, and even favorite audiobook narrators. Some might say listening to audiobooks is not reading, but I have researched that statement and all the sources say it produces the same benefit as actually reading the words yourself. Give yourself a gift by checking out this Libby app. It will open up your world.

Continued problems with this app. I have had the Libby app for over 7 years now and it worked beautifully up until 5 months ago when I was summarily “kicked” off the app in the middle of listening to an audiobook. It took me 2 weeks to log back in since Libby kept insisting that my library card of over 20 years was invalid and that I needed to apply for a library card in order to log back into the app. During this time being kicked off the app my entire history of books borrowed, tagged and on hold was deleted. I emailed the tech support for Libby asking to rectify this situation and to reinstate my history once I was able to log back in using the very card that was deemed invalid and have heard nothing back from them. Yet again today in the middle of listening to my audiobook I was summarily logged out and am being asked to go through the same ridiculous process of entering a “valid” library card. I am quite frustrated with these recent events and wish to know if there was some update done to this app that has it functioning at less than optimal. I have also had to wait an eternity while the app buffers whenever I have tried to go back a few chapters while listening to my audiobooks. I am extremely disappointed with the new turn of events with this app as it has always been my go to for audiobooks while driving long distances.

Poorer operation for the sake of ease of use. I finally was forced over to Libby from Overdrive after 5 years of heavy use. Admittedly, overdrive had issues—it took me (a very tech-savvy mid-20-year-old) a while to understand, and I constantly had to download books for my older parents because the interface was too confusing. Libby has fixed all these functionality issues—it is now much more intuitive to use, and much easier for my parents to understand without any assistance. HOWEVER, while it fixed the confusing aspects, it lost a huge amount of the actual functionality/operation speed. The app feels clunky in its run speeds, regularly glitches out and crashes, and lost so many of the features that let overdrive be adaptable to different uses. It is very slow, has issues with downloading, and won’t let you download books in parts. The optimization is just all off. Now you look at Libby and think “oh woah this is bound to work well,” but then it constantly disappoints with glitches. Overdrive was confusing to navigate but always worked very smoothly in terms of playing the content/downloading. I’ve been using Libby for a couple months now and have just been consistently disappointed with what a downgrade it is in terms of actually playing audiobooks/reading/downloading.

The world’s best app!. Libby is my most-used, most-useful phone app. Since the phone is always with me, I am never without an audiobook to listen to. I play audiobooks through the car’s speakers (using an adapter, since my car’s too old for CarPlay). I don’t mind sitting in traffic when there’s a book fo listen to. Nor do long lines bother me as long as my earbuds are handy. The controls are really easy to use. In the car, for example, I just tell Siri to launch Libby. The book I’ve been listening to is right there, and there’s a separate set of control “buttons” to be used while driving. One of the best things about Libby is that there are never any late fees. The app warns you when your borrowing period is drawing to a close and, if you still forget to return it,it very politely returns it for you. You’re also told when one of your holds is ready, so you can add it to your bookshelf. There’s even phone support, too, when you need it. I found Libby much easier to learn and use than Audible. Best of all, Libby is totally free. All you need to set it up is your library card. And there are no ads with this free app! I recommend it highly!

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Prev: Why kill off Overdrive??? EDIT: recommend books. Ok, so I use both apps from my local library. My personal preference is for Overdrive. A much simpler experience all round inc. it’s player interface. Libby’s player is much more convoluted - and the platform is very busy. I think the older readers will struggle with a Libby only system of lending. I’ve tried to combine the best features of both for my reading experience, but will be devastated to see the Overdrive app disappear at the end of the year. I can’t see any logical reason for this and nobody has ever given any explanation for its shut-down. A sad decision indeed. Please keep Overdrive running!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 EDIT: Another downside of Libby is it does not have any facility to recommend new titles for purchase by your library. This is a fantastic feature on the original OVERDRIVE app. ALSO - I’ve noticed lately lots of missing titles for books in a series. Yet these titles usually exist in the catalogue, but just haven’t been linked for whatever reason. The search function is terrible, so I rely on the last read titles display and search using the ‘Author name’ to link me to missing titles.

A readers must have. Really easy to use and has most title you are searching for. This app lets reads any book one desires on a go with many genres and famous authors. This is my best friend for long car trips and not only provides books to read but also audio books. Great for anyone who just doesn’t have to time to fit reading into there busy life’s. this app even goes as far as to notify you when your book is ready to read or is over jue. Pretty much a library on your phone.

Irritating. For a novice user the app is irritatingly complicated. Finding out what to do and how to use it is time consuming & for those without patience and digital expertise very taxing. The icon was enough to put me off from using until my phone would no longer download audiobooks previously done on overdrive. But I admit to a prejudice against all those new emoji look alikes. Now having the frustration of trying to navigate its download and set up on my iPad. Thank god overdrive still working on that device so not so critical and can presumably go to the library eventually for help. Just as well I’m still mobile. Having vented that will do.

Yvonne. I have just discovered Libby and still have a lot to learn about the app but I’ve managed one book so far and found it excellent. I never thought I would enjoy reading from my iPad as I love holding books. I can go to my library for assistance if there’s something I don’t understand about the app. I’m sure I’ll get more confident as I go on. A friend told me about it and as I’m travelling overseas soon, I can take my reading with me. It’s too difficult taking books and they add weight to luggage. It’s an amazing app and I love it. SO good when travelling not to have to add the weight of books to luggage.

Great e-reader - but no landscape mode. I’ve only just switched from Overdrive and am still in the exploratory phase, but from day 1 I realised that Libby’s extensive features really enhance the experience. Only one disappointment so far - I prefer to read library books on my iPhone in landscape mode, which Overdrive allows, but Libby does not support this function. Hopefully it will be introduced soon, and I’ll be able to change my rating to 5 stars. Edit: Now that I’ve been using Libby for a couple of weeks I’ve noticed that I really don’t miss landscape mode after all. So I’ve added another star - well done, developers!

Libby. What a great idea Libby is. The shut down really impeded my regular visits to the library and while I miss the social interaction I enjoyed with the helpful, friendly and smiling staff, having an application that not only provides books, but reads them to you as well, goes some way in filling the gap. One of my biggest pleasures has always been to soak in a bubble bath and read a book, but in my advancing years came reading glasses and fogged up specs deprived me of the pleasure. Libby, however, has enabled me to recapture the total decadence of not just reading in the bath, but listening! Thank you Libby!

Libby just gets better and better. Since downloading Libby are year or so ago, I have almost stopped reading print books. The app is unbeatable in my opinion. It just gets better and better. Today for example, I discovered a new feature that allows me to share my downloads between my iPad and my iMac. My only complaint with the service is that there are so many great books and authors that are not yet available through the app. I assume this is due to licensing issues between Libby, copyright holders and publishers. However, at 73 years of age I will be lucky if I get time to enjoy even half of the hundreds of books and dozens of audiobooks I have already bookmarked for future reading.

Still Needs Some Improvement. These comments refer specifically to “The Economist Asia” as that’s the magazine I read frequently. I find Libby quite “clunky” compared to the way that RB Digital operates; the latter is much more user friendly. Page turning, ability to read the articles in landscape mode on an iPad and the fact there’s no “speech to text” conversion facility is rather disappointing. I sent the above comments months ago but nothing has changed nor have I been contacted.

Screen Time has gone through the roof since Libby. I can’t put my phone down - I’m obsessed with Libby 💃🏼 Free, convenient, customisable ... Libby has everything that traditional books have plus a lot more. I’m no longer “waiting” all the time - no longer waiting for my Pilates class to start, or for my friends to arrive, or for the barista to make my coffee ... all those many minutes of the day I used to be idling around / waiting impatiently / twiddling my thumbs I’m now spending reading! 📖 = a much more relaxed me 😌

I love Libby. I love having books on my devices, I can read on my phone when out and on the tablet at home - all keeping track of each other. My friend reads on her computer as well. It took me a few attempts to become familiar with the interface, however, the features - preview, extend loan, search, audio or print only are there. It is possibly not as intuitive as other user interfaces but I’ve got it now, mostly. I love Libby

Fantastic for time poor book lovers. It’s great as I don’t have time to go to town library and there is no problem with overdue library books. My grandkids love it too and read books before school from my app. It’s online free brilliance and free access to 1000s of books from all genres. I think it’s a superb combination of supporting literacy through a safe medium with the absolutely positive side internet technology we can enjoy in our homes. Thank you to everyone who makes online libraries and Libby possible.

Libby. Great way to read your favourite books, either at home or on the go on your mobile or tablet. Fantastic option to be able to reserve your book and then defer but stay at the top of the waiting list if you are reading something else at the time. The approximate wait time is handy too. Adjusting the font size and changing to a black background for night time reading without disturbing your partner is a feature I use often. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

Still unpolished, mostly OK. When this app was first released it might have been adequate for reading books on, but for magazines not so much. In the early days it made very hard work of flipping pages, which magazines obviously need to be able to do, and it was a sad day when our library left RBDigital (a very competent app) for this underdone product. Since then the developers have improved its page-flipping to the point where it doesn’t choke any more, but they still have work to do. It would be nice, for example, if the app could remember what page it’s on while my iPad switches itself between portrait and landscape. Also if it could learn to stop nagging me about do I want notifications. Show me how, it says. How about NO?

Rich in Features. There is a lot of useful functions in the app like renewals and hold notifications. I just wish there is an always-on-display page number similar to how adobe acrobat reader has just the little page number on the side of the page instead of always having to click the center of the page just to get the information. I tend to have number of pages read per day as a reading goal and once I reach the daily goal, I can stop reading and move on to my next activity. But having to click on the center of the page each time I want to check what page I am in breaks my train of thought on what I am reading.

Fantastic. A brilliant app for accessing library resources. The search features are great. Reader views and options are clear and intuitive. The switch libraries option is great. It would be great if it had push notifications linked to the activity tab - notifications for when a book on your shelf is due/ about to expire, and a notification when a book you placed a hold on becomes available. It would also be great to have Good Reads integration. And even greater if it had Spritz integration. I love this app.

Love Libby Library. As much as I love to visit my local library, it’s good to have Libby at my fingertips anytime, anywhere, whether reading an ebook or magazine, or listening to one of the great selection of audiobooks. Libby provides access to a broad range, with so many useful reading and listening tools. The borrowing history and tag features allow me to view a record of my use and to keep a store of ‘Want to read’. There are too many great features to list here, suffice to say I heartily recommend Libby.

Excellent library access. Libby gives you access to whatever electronic resources your local library offers, in an easy and pretty format. It's well-suited to browsing, with interesting groupings, so you don't have to already know what you want. That's a big deal! Syncing between devices seems to work well too. The improvement I'd suggest is letting the user decide if they want to pick up a hold or reject it for now. I'm in hospital with very thin wifi, and the loan on the audio book I've just get from hold is ticking away, but I can't access it right now.

Absolutely love the app. Honestly so well thought out and everything it’s cute as well as practical easy to navigate and on top of that has an excellent range of books. The holds are almost never the estimated time and come quickly. My only complaint is the borrowing or renewing the book, whenever I need to renew a book it never works and I have to place another hold on the book if you could fix that it would be wonderful! Otherwise its an amazing app love it.

Love Libby. Libby is user friendly and convenient. I enjoy reading and especially like listening to audio books - great when doing housework and gardening. Can’t really fault the app. Only thing I would like is if I could put it on timer for longer than 30mins. Can you give us a choice eg 30, 45, 60 minutes...I like to listen as I go to sleep, and 30 mins is just too short. Also more of the series in books. Often I can access only a few books of a series eg Micheal Connolly’s Bosch series. It would be awesome to read/ listen to these in chronological order. However these are minor issues. Otherwise LOVE Libby.

This is fantastic.. I am quite old 74 can’t walk and my eye sights not the best Audiobooks library are really great I can get it on my iPad. Phone or computer means I can read a book or I hear a book any time I want to and if I don’t like it after the first page I can return it instantly and get out one. I do like it’s really good for mothers who can’t get out of the house good for carers and for any house bound people. Once the book is borrowed you don’t need the internet So good for holidays. Camping. Waiting at the doctors Or people in hospital. Even if your powers out as long as your iPad or phone charged. You can read or hear.

Amazing (for people who love books. This app is a amazing I personally use this app for every book that I read and I’ll search for if it’s an audio book this app has tones of different books and there not just word books there are audio books to! This is my fav reading app I would highly recommend and it’s super easy to use I love books and so does my mom so we will just sit there with our headphones on and just listen to the books. Like I said this app is super easy to easy to use and it’s really good for people who love books. GO DOWNLOAD RIGHT NOW I MEAN RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! 📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📕📗📘📙

Love it.. I rarely make it to the library so having this app is very convenient. I enjoy listening to the audio books. Great for listening to at night in bed. It has a sleep option so it doesn’t play all night. No more dropping the book on my face when I fall asleep! I also really appreciate the speed control which has smaller increments than the Borrow Box app. Only improvement would be to be able to access the rest of the series I have been listening to.

My fave library app. This is my fave library app because it's very user friendly. I only use this app for audiobooks so my review is mainly related to audiobooks. Kudos on a great app!! 1 allows me to search across a few libraries without having to log in and out of each library account (unlike BorrowBox which requires me to log out and that wipes out my historical account data!) 2 automatically syncs across my devices so that I can pick up exactly where I left off when I pickup a different device (unlike BorrowBox which requires me to download the whole book again from scratch on my other device!) 3 allows me to use the 15 sec quick rewind/forward on the app by clicking my Bluetooth earphones buttons and car Bluetooth buttons on the steering wheel (the BorrowBox app rewinds to the beginning of the chapter which is annoying) Negatives: (1)sometimes when I press the 15sec rewind too many times it takes me to the start of the book and I have to spend a lot of time finding my spot again. (2)it doesn't let you renew the loan til the very last moment by which time you may miss the date and/or someone else has booked it and so you can't continue reading, and have to go back into the queue. Frustrating! (In this respect BorrowBox is much much better as it allows you to extend your loan at the beginning and when you finish the book early you can return it early).

Read this review!. This is an awesome app for someone that can’t get up and go to the local libraries for reasons like disabilities or sickness. Say if you are addicted to an iPad, iPhone, or other devices this is awesome to get you reading. If the library doesn’t have a book in stock, get it on Libby! Mi sister and I have been using this for years! I wish you all I happy long life! Now, this bit is for the creator. Can you get all of the books in plz? I can find a new book and horse books that I would like. Thank you a lot. I wish you a happy long life!

Fantastic reading experience. I feel thankful I found Libby during the pandemic. My book collection is already out of hand. With Libby I have access to a wide range of books which has been great. The reading of those books works exceptionally well on Libby - other similar apps have glitches in them - the pages aren’t counted properly: sometimes you can’t turn the pages etc - but never with Libby. I highly recommend it. I was someone who was somewhat ‘anti’ electronic book but since finding Libby, this has definitely changed.

Libby A library to carry with you.. Although I’ve always loved libraries and hard copies, to be able to read into the night in dark mode without need for a bed lamp Or/ head lamp😁disturbing the other half; to be able to carry a big thick book around with me, but weightlessly, in my handbag/iPad; and then have the book sync to my phone screen for waiting rooms etc. what more could I want?. I’m NEVER without a book.! Plus anytime access to my State’s libraries. And there’s the audiobooks!!! No more skipping CDs when travelling hours on gravel roads. Or when your hands are working, back is aching, a mind can be way way away. Libby best innovation in my life.

Infinite Books!. Libby makes finding and reading books simple, and its ‘hold’ and ‘timeline’ features open up new opportunities and options. The reading interface is clear and easily adapted to our needs and preferences, and the global search and suggestions mean there’s always something new and interesting to try. Not a criticism, but the only suggestion I might make would be including a way to find and join libraries - either free or with a subscription. Apart from that, Libby is pretty well perfect.

Could be better. It’s a good app that lets you read books on a tablet as well as desktop but the unknown wait is very inconvenient and there is no way to actually contact anyone for that. Some of the book series have books missing from the series, so if a book #3 is missing from that series, how can I read the next one in that? There are a lot of series with missing books in between. Most of my holds have unknown wait so I obviously can’t place ok hold anything else but that unknown wait is still there even after couple of months so I don’t know whether to cancel or keep waiting for unknown wait items to be available. Very very unreliable.

Libby the avid reader’s App. A big jump from the earlier Overdrive, reliable & intuitive. I love the way one can manage a list of books read, personally rate ie Tag. This is a good way to manage ‘holds’ too when too many arrive together - just give them the right Tag and Return to the library for other readers and place a hold again. The Activity list is simple and can be edited down as chosen with Tags showing. This is a great way to navigate a series. Audio books are great too. I really appreciate being able to view easily books I have read, authors I like and my above all Favourites! And of course, my least favourites.

The Libby pill ya had to swallow. The app overdrive forced you to swallow. Ok it works pretty well when it’s not glitching which is often. The load time is far slower than overdrive was, that is when it opens or doesn’t experience “ technical difficulties “. On the positive a better layout and it gets the extra star ( or two)for displaying the books in the series which is a fantastic addition. The library card view is better and ease of swapping between multiple accounts is another great addition. Hopefully after a few bug fixes this app will work seamlessly.

Spoilt for choice. Thoroughly enjoying Libby for quality magazines across a huge range of genres including some of my favourites. To have these available through the local library has been such a luxury during COVID lockdowns. Yes, there are a pile of trashy supermarket checkout rags and any amount of indulgent lifestyle and home improvement eye candy, but delve deeper and you will find real and plentiful intellectual stimulation in creative art, current affairs, opinion, critique, philosophy, science, history, archaeology and psychology amongst high class journals and magazines being offered. It’s hard to keep up!…and then there are books too!

Libby is my library at home. Libby has replaced much of my in-person library visiting, as I’m generally working during opening hours, these days. It has been wonderful to add to my reading and listening options and seems pretty simple to operate. My main suggestions for improvement is for recognition of my library card number so I don’t need to put it in each time, and for MORE BOOKS and AUDIOBOOKS to be added to the collection please! It’s so good when it works, it’s really disappointing when it doesn’t have the titles I’m interested in…

Fabulous app. Can’t sleep? Want to borrow a book in the middle of the night? Download Libby, attach your public library card number, and you have access to all the reading material your library has on offer. Of course it’s also perfect for downloading items during daylight. Libby is easy to navigate, and comes with simple tutorials if something isn’t clear, but really it’s quite straightforward. Browse or search for a title, and click on download. There are several ways to search, plenty of inspiration, and you can place a hold on an item if it’s not currently available and it will be immediately downloaded for you when it becomes so. Return your item with a single click and repeat the process as often as you like. The reading experience is excellent, with a choice of font styles and sizes and background colours to optimise your reading comfort. You can easily see how far you are along in a chapter, with estimated reading times. Highlight passages, keep notes, lookup word definitions on the fly. Audiobook speed can be adjusted up to 2x normal speed should you prefer chipmunk to human voice. Can’t recommend public libraries and this app enough. Also check out Kanopy for movies, and Press Reader for magazines and periodicals, which can also be accessed from your library card.

Can’t get any support. Almost every time I try to borrow a magazine, this app asks me to verify my library membership. Which I try and then it fails with an error. I have contacted my library and they said I am not the only one with this issue. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app. I have tried on different days at different times. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn’t? Unfortunately, there is no way to contact overdrive support. I have searched everywhere for contact information (in the app, on their website, on Facebook) but it is not available. Hence this review. I would have given 3 stars for this app (it’s an ok app, not great), but I figure this 1 star review might get the developer’s attention.

Clunky reader with good content access. City of Sydney recently switched reader apps. I thought the old one was bad, this one really is no better. My benchmark is Scribd which I pay for. It’s not perfect but much better than this or the older reader. Why do I need to hit three seperate borrow buttons to borrow a magazine? Why can’t I just subscribe to a magazine anyway, each week I need to search for the Economist, find the latest issue and then click borrow multiple times??? Have the designers of this software ever used a competitor app like Scribd, it seems not. Fortunately Libby does have access to thousands of magazines. Books are limited, but this may be limited to City of Sydney’s subscription status. The rest of the app is just as clunky, hence 2 stars.

Libby. Libby membership is so convenient. People can access ebooks and audio books pretty much at any time from any place. As long as the book is available it’s easy to borrow. My only criticism is that there is often a very long wait on some books and as I’m in a book club, and we all need the same book, this means we are frequently forced to purchase the book. Some members find $30+ each month is too expensive, especially for a book we may not enjoy !! Overall though, Libby is great and I recommend it to everyone.

Amazing in every way. With the world becoming more mindful in how we treat our planet, saving paper is harder than it seems; books, notepads, post it notes, tissues, calendars, and many others. Having a free online resource that has thousands of books is an easy step to a better environment where we don’t have to waste paper for something we might only read once. The app design is intuitive and as simple for those who aren’t great with technology, as it is for those who spend 24/7 staring at their screens. This app has many functions and has magazines, books, audiobooks, and perhaps more. It is easy to borrow a book and it returns itself on its due date relieving you from the stress of overdue fees. The idea of connecting the books with real libraries is also great as it helps the books be more accessible to everyone, especially now during lockdown. I could not ask for a better app and am grateful for the concept, the creators, and everyone behind this brilliant app! :)

Really good but one thing I really don’t get. This is a really good app because there are so many books that you can read for free, without even having to get up and do anything. But I really don’t understand why only ONE person can read an ebook at a time. It’s an EBOOK. Maybe it’s for some sort of copyright reason, I don’t know. But it’s not like it’s a physical book and it’s passed down to every person that needs it. Please make it so that more than one person can read it at a time, so I don’t have to wait for a month to read the book. But other than that problem, this is a really good app and I recommend it. BUT PLEASE MAKE IT SO MORE THAN ONE PERSON CAN READ THE EBOOK AT A TIME.

Book World:Libby. Libby is a wonderful app where you can read books from library’s across South Australia. I have very much enjoyed reading books on Libby. It has been amazing to use Libby in lock down. I have been reading some of my favourite books “The Babysitters Club”. The app Libby is a quick and easy plus fun way to read books while library’s are closed. My favourite thing about Libby is that you can read samples of the book if someone else has borrowed the book you wanted to borrow. From book fan Amber Schultz

User-friendly reading app. Libby is fairly user friendly for readers who have a high turnover of books but find it difficult to get to a physical library in their limited opening hours. A lockdown friend! Positive aspects are that it contains a good range of books and you can adjust the length of your loan. If you are not ready to borrow a book you have on hold, you can postpone borrowing it until you are ready but still somehow stay at the front of the queue. I like that I can tag books that I don’t have time to read now but I want to remember when I’m looking for something later. I have an ongoing list I can refer to when choosing a new read. Negative aspects is that they have some glaring holes in the collection (no Robert Galbraith? What is that about?). If you want to make changes to Libby's settings, it isn’t intuitive, you have to be very motivated to keep looking. Biggest negative: Libby is not available on kindle in Australia. Inside the app, it says it is but when you dig deeper, it turns out that is only in America. I will keep using Libby as it seems the best available option but it can still do with some work.

Not good for magazines. My library has moved from RBDigital to Libby and it loses so much! It seems you can’t subscribe to a magazine so that you can see new issues each month. And there is no alert to let you know that a new issue is available. So every so often you have to launch the app, use the search to find your magazine (if you can remember the titles of those ones you like to follow) then download it. RBDigital did all that for you so that you just launched the app and saw all the latest mags sitting there waiting for you to read. It even emailed you to tell you of new issues. Libby need to add these features. Reading books is fine.

Worst user interface of any reading app I have used. It’s good to be able to access your local library magazines and books electronically but that is about the only good thing about this app. Data download speeds are quite slow compared to downloading the same amount of data for files or music over the same connection using other apps. Trying to navigate the menu system is an exercise in frustration. It is possibly the worst menu system of any app I have used. The central menu option seems to randomly dump me into notifications, saved tags, borrowed books, recommendations etc. Rarely can I just find my downloaded books without clicking through a few menu items- it certainly doesn’t open a list of them when first opening the app, which would seem logical. Compared to Apple Books, Kindle reader, BrowZine and a number of other reading apps I have used, this is just the worst! The tag system is terrible - trying to tag a regularly issued magazine to keep track of new editions seems to always add the magazines under the wrong tag only and/or add only the old edition that you have already read and not automatically show you the newest edition available. Our local library has just added the option of using ‘Borrow Box’ and this is by far a better app. I hope they stop using Libby altogether

Fabulous. I cannot afford to buy magazines but this app allows me to read all my favourites and I never miss an issue because it tells me when a new issue is out. I can copy a page I want to keep for reference into my notes or print a page so no loss having only on line magazines. Best thing about my library other than the one week express books which are the latest published books. Could not be happier

Best App. I love the convenience of Libby…so great to be able to source reading matter, day or night. Have also tested out audiobooks (couldn’t afford them any other way!) and was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed them so much. Some of the wait times have sometimes been extreme, (up to 16 weeks for new popular titles), but there’s always something else to try in the meantime, and the waits are rarely as long as anticipated. I have not experienced any glitches of late, and I rate Libby as my favourite app.

Fabulous. Not only is everything free, it’s easy to use, download books, and return them. There are options to make the screen black and the text white so you can read comfortably at night, and a timer option for audio books so you can be read to sleep (unless the story is too gripping, in which case, you will not sleep). I only wish they had an option where if you search a title they don’t have, you can request Libby to make it available.

App has gone from amazing to absolutely HORRIBLE due to constant issues with Playback Speed. Used to adore Libby but to my horror I found that one of the best features - the ability to fine tune playback speed - has become completely broken Every single time I change the speed to the button of x2 it resets to x1. Then in desperation I use the fine tune controls on the right hand side and this also keeps resetting UNTIL I fine tune it to around 1.8 or nearby denomination whereby it finally stops its reset and continues playback at speed. That is, until the book moves onto another chapter, or god forbid you press rewind, whereby the playback instantly reverts back to x1. This is a constant annoyance and also dangerous for me as I primarily listen to audiobooks on my car drives and I really cannot keep stressed about needing to take my hands off the wheel to keep changing playback speeds (or stopping the car every 5 seconds by side of the road to do this). PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD FIX THIS. And while you are at it, please look to add a “Driving Mode” like the Audible App with big buttons to rewind or bookmark, and an always on screen when driving. Thank you.

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Libby - wow. I used RB digital for my reading of magazines until I was forced to migrate to Libby. I considered a carefully worded letter of complaint, a not some carefully worded letter of feeling and finally I just thought , “stuff it technology always changes”, and just converted. What’s glorious program Libby is. Not only can I read my magazines but I have been introduced to the world of audio books. I normally always get digital books but being able to borrow the latest Ken Follet book was a wonderful experience. Well done Libby!

Love Libby but Audiobooks?. Now I love Libby. It's an easy to access amazing online selection of books and audiobooks with an amazing range from horror to romance to non-fiction. I love it all. Well mostly... So I've been using Libby for two years or so now but I've only just began to be interested in the audiobooks. So I was on hold for two weeks to get my first but as I began listening it wasnt narrated by the author or anyone with expression - no offence. I'm not completely sure if this is the case with all audiobooks but the five I borrowed were all the same so I returned them... Thats really my only downside and dissatisfaction with Libby. I love it. It's an easy to access mobile library you can access online and just sign in with your own library card! Over all, I love it and use it everyday as my go to.

Amazing app. This is one of the best library apps I have downloaded as every book I have searched for has turned up. This has not been the case for many other apps of this caliber. My one improvement if I am being really fussy would be that I would prefer it if we were able to extend the amount of time you have to read the book if the borrower is unable to finish it within the two weeks provided. Obviously this would reduce the availability of the books but that was the only inconvenience I have encountered while using this app.

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Don’t cancel overdrive. I like the original app Overdrive, I find Libby confusing and all over the place but apparently they aren’t supporting the OG app in the NewYear and I am very dissatisfied

Libby My New Best Friend. The app is so easy to use and it helps me to develop my reading habits and keep me knowledgeable on all new and must read books. My LIBBY, my new best friend.

Libby. Not user friendly…poor second to Overdrive. Very disorganized

Please go back to previous version. This is awful. Please go back to the software you were using before this. This is hard to navigate, find anything, view anything. I hate it!!

Thank you for providing Libby as an option. I have been enjoying the books provided by Libby. It’s an easy assessable opportunity to read books. 👍💕

Freezing during audiobooks. This is not a good replacement for overdrive. It freezes during audiobooks. Takes a long time to start an audio book. It is frustrating to find books.

Libby. I liked the original overdrive better. This feels like a downgrade. I can not find a way to log out of the app. It is always open.

Glitchy. I like the format better than the original overdrive app however even after downloading a book file onto the app it still uses internet to upload each page which causes glitches. Recently when a page doesn't load it skips either forward or backwards several chapters which leaves me in a scramble to find my place. Not impressed. Once a book is downloaded no online loading should happen. I don't understand the point of downloading it otherwise. Incredibly frustrated.

Libby: not particularly user-friendly!. Overdrive was intuitive. Too bad it’s being discontinued

Lacks Overdrive’s functionality. I’m dreading the end of life for Overdrive and being forced to use Libby. I regularly used the ability to recommend titles and download additional resources for a PDF, both appear to be missing here.

Offline mode doesn’t work. I downloaded 4 books before a flight, and even though they were downloaded I wasn’t able to ready anything on the flight.

Horrible app. Overdrive was easy to use and navigate. So why change it????? Libby makes me want to pull my hair out - it is that frustrating!

Great app for free library audiobooks.. Easy to use.

Another switch for the worse. My library used to work with Overdrive without incident for years. Now they’ve dropped Overdrive, with Libby being the only option for books and audiobooks. I hate it. Its painfully slow, crashes all the time and I just can’t use it. It’s just too much of a struggle and I just don’t have the frustration threshold. The developers clearly didn’t consider those of us who can’t afford to buy new tablets every year

Not a great alternative to Overdrive. Hard to navigate. Icons smaller and harder to understand. Whole app is cluttered and uninviting. Thoroughly disappointed that this is replacing Overdrive. I’ve given it 2 months of use, still not a fan.

It works okay. Find it’s not very intuitive. You have to constantly search for your author. Unlike previous one that the library had it would show up all the books from author & the related ones when you opened app so I didn’t have to spend so much time looking for my next read. This app does have a very nice read layout.

Unreliable. Been using Overdrive for years from BlackBerry Playbook to iPad. Libby does not download audio books very well. Controls are graphic and confusing. I may have to go back to print once my library drops Overdrive, because Libby doesn’t do the job.

Frustrated. Not user friendly

Difficulty. Libby is difficult to navigate. On the library interface, the search function does not function. It was impossible to find the book that I just returned to place another hold. By name, by author, or by subject. None of the searches could find a book that obviously was available in the library.

Too many extra steps. Overdrive was so much better and easier to navigate. All Libby does is complicate everything and even after doing all the little extra steps it still is not nearly as good as overdrive. For example, why do I need to take an extra step just to see the page numbers. It’s just a nuisance all the way around

Not User friendly AT ALL. Overdrive was very easy to navigate. Libby is not. Nothing good to say about this app.

Libby. So sad they ruined overdrive. Unable to adjust speed of audios and size of print. Almost useless.

Don’t like the App. I’m so disappointed with my library. Considering using the Apple library. I find Libby very hard to use vs. Overdrive

App skips back to beginning of book. When the phone is “closed” and I try to skip backwards using the 15-seconds backwards arrow, the app is automatically skipping back to the beginning of the book. This completely defeats the purpose of using an app. If I have to put down what I’m doing or pull over to the side of the road every time I want to re-listen to something, I may as well delete the app and pick up a book.

Not User Friendly. I’m heartbroken that my library will be using Libby. It’s confusing and even the answers in the help section are contradictory. I’m a bit frantic about whether I’ll even be able to use my library in the future. Terrible app.

Confusing, no wish list functionality. I hate Libby with a passion. The wish list function on overdrive was simple and incredibly effective and it has completely disappeared on Libby. If I had to pick just one reason to dislike this app, it’s the lack of wish list function. It there are others. I gave up on it and went back to overdrive. Honestly, overdrive is very straightforward and easy to use. I am beyond disappointed and they have done nothing to improve this awful Libby app in the meantime. And now they are cancelling overdrive. Ugh.

Great app! I love ❤️ it so much!!❤️💛💚💙. Libby is great!!! You can borrow books and audio books that read to you!!! I read some every morning.!Libby is also where I found my new favourite series:…narwhal and jelly! I love it so much!❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍

Get scrolling view please!. Great app but please please get scrolling view.

Works good, wish it could be dimmed. I use this in night mode a lot, but it’s bright in the dark of night, even with the black background. IBooks can be dimmed in this situation, would sure love it if that feature could be added. That’s the only thing holding back my fifth star. Thanks for a great app.

Now I have to plan ahead to read. Tried to use Libby on the plane. Figured you’re forcing me to stop using Overdrive soon so I’d give it try. Nope! Apparently reading is a streaming service now so I couldn’t access any of my books because I hadn’t planned ahead. My Overdrive books are already downloaded so I don’t have this problem. Not everything needs to be a web interface people.

Fanny. Prefer overdrive

Weirdly Bad. In principle, I am a huge fan of library apps. I tried switching to Libby from Overdrive but I’m going back. The search filter selection is tedious and clunky. If nothing else, search-ability should be the one pro of a library app.

If You Like To Read - Get This App!. It’s free! It’s books! Read OR listen! Easy to use! Works great!

Useless for MacBook. It’s not compatible with my MacBook so I’d have to read books on my phone... super disappointed.

Recommending Books. I use Overdrive now to borrow books from my library and it’s awesome. Overdrive is being phased out at the end of the year so I have to switch to Libby. In the old app I could search for an unreleased title and then recommend it and when it became available it would automatically go to my holds. Why doesn’t Libby have this option???

Overdrive works fine. Not as good as overdrive

Love the app but. Can u guys please put how many pages r in a book plz

Very Unhappy with Libby. Not pleased with Libby. OverDrive is much better. Hard to manage and lacks many options. Would prefer not to use Libby at all. Why is such a good application as OD going to be canceled? Does not make sense.

I really dislike this app.. Life was way better when people had the option of Overdrive or Libby. Overdrive was straight forward and worked very well. Libby is buggy and glitchy and not user friendly. I find myself searching for the options overdrive has and cannot find them. 5 thumbs down👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼 Please bring back overdrive!

Doesn’t work out of province. I was out of province and wanted to get a book. No such luck. According to the help directions, I unloaded the card to login again. It persistently booted me out. Apparently, location services do not allow to use the library out of province. I was left without reading during my trip! If I could give 0 stars, I would do it.

Needs to work when no internet connection. I want to be able to read or listen without needing to connect to the internet.

Don’t get rid of Overdrive!!!. I’m travelling right now with limited internet. Libby won’t let me read books on my shelf without a connection! Not very useful. Back to Overdrive for me as a connection is not a requirement for books on the shelf.

Great app!. It is a great addition to all the other services you can have with a library card! Great for listening to books, keep up with your holds, and organize your shelves. However, if you want to listening to and reading books at the same time, you need to open the book with Overdrive. Not a big deal, though.

Good reading experience. Requires network connection.. The Libby app is good for reading library books when the app can find an internet connection. Fine. That gets it a 2. Many of us want to read on our devices on public transportation, where there is often no net connection to be found. Attempting to read a title that has already been downloaded to my phone, on a subway train where there is no internet - Libby fails to load the book. Look, I get it - Overdrive wants to track me, but does that mean you cripple the app for cases where you can't. Bulls!@t. This 'bug; has been persistent since the beta. Then it appeared to be fixed. Now its back. Because of the BS with loading fails, I'm tempted to rate the app 1 star, but the reading experience really is good, once you get a book loaded.

Awful. Absolutely horrible app. I’ve tried to use it several times and it flat out sucks. Overdrive is so easy. Why on earth is something that works great and is smooth and seamless being replaced with something that is so clunky and awkward. No Libby for me.

Low contrast design. When are designers going to stop using low contrast design? What about people who are vision impaired? Shouldn’t a library be cognizant of disabilities? Lease make your search field on my phone legible!

Libby sucks. Overdrive was so much better.

Keep overdrive. The people that are giving it good reviews are new users that probably did not use overdrive. If you can’t get recommendations or see what books are going to be released or request books to purchase what was the point in the new app? It definitely is not better and does not give us the great options that Overdrive gave us. Hopefully the right people will read these reviews and make the very necessary changes.

Latest UI changes are horrible. As a UI designer and user of Libby, the latest user interface re-design makes Libby almost unusable. The problems are too numerous to mention. The combination of product owner and designer decisions need to be revisited. Some simple usability evaluations like heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough (which are cheap when done by qualified individuals) would reveal the many issues. Also, the developer is lucky Apple did not reject the app because the screen shots do not reflect the actual user interface any more. UPDATE: I see the latest update was 4 months ago. This leads me to believe you are A/B testing user interface changes because the UI changes I mentioned above appeared last week. It's still very bad. A note to other reviewers, you may be seeing an older version of the user interface.

Your formatt. I am vision impaired and can no longer reas regular print. I have my iPad greatly enlarged, with bold print and spaces between the lines. The books I donladd are easy for me to read. However, since the list of books cannot be enlarged, I never know which books am getting until I open it..my complaint- why can the list of books not be able to be to be enlarged also? Icannot even read what I have just written, because this page can also not be enlarged! Getting a book to read can be a frustrating experience. Joan Cameron

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Long Overdue for Downloading. I’ve actually heard about Libby for awhile from a YouTuber that I follow who rates and reviews books. The app had been a sponsor for a few booktube-related videos and I viewed it as yet another app that would be at the back of my head. However, after some time and me being cheap, I decided to download Libby when I would want to try out titles I’d see at the bookstore. It’s such a money saver for books that I’m unsure of owning myself, and I really love the numerous selections of audiobooks to choose from. I’m still hesitant in reading books through a screen that aren’t fanfiction since it doesn’t feel the same, and I’m trying to lessen my eyes from too much screen time. The audiobook selection really helps as an alternative to trying out different titles when I’m unable to read books on my iPad. Overall, this app is well-deserving of a 5-star review and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading, too cheap to buy physical books, or can’t always go to their local library too often. The best part about Libby is that you’d also be supporting your local libraries through it 😊

Reading my heart out!. I LOVE this app, and it's the whole reason I got a library card. When I was at my lowest and most anxious during the pandemic, this app just about saved my marriage and darn near saved my life too. I've also learned so many new words and ideas simply from being able to look them up as I read. And I'm never bored in any situation where I have to wait for (or during) an appointment, there's always a book waiting to whisk me away for awhile. I keep trying to get my parents to use their iPad to read library books but I guess maybe theirs is too old. :-( The only thing I'd ask for, and I already sent this to their feedback team just now, would be to customize the page colors more, because I like to read black text on a tan background during the day. This is a great way to read a ton without busting your budget... and remember, the authors DO make some money when you borrow, and more borrowing, even through an app, also means your library will get more state and federal funding, allowing more people the opportunity to read and learn!

By far the best ebook app I’ve tried!. This app is great overall! I have used the overdrive app and the kindle app, but Libby has to be the best I’ve used by far! I love that it allows you to sign into multiple library accounts and lets you easily access them. Books appear right after they are checked out, and they are really easy to download and read! I only have a couple features that I think would make this app even better: 1.It would be great if you were able to access your account to manage your physical books you have checked out as well as your ebooks. Several times I’ve thought to check my books to see if their due, only to realize that I can’t do that with Libby. It would be amazing if you could add that feature. 2. Another feature that would be great, is if you could add the ability to listen to an audiobook while reading an ebook, like Kindle allows you to do. But this should only be available if you have both the ebook and the audio book checked out. It is sometimes nice to be able to listen and read along at the same time. Just a couple suggestions here. Hope you get a chance to check this out. Thanks for the great app!

Libby makes me love the library again. I have an English degree but have struggled with getting back into the library habit in the 10+ years since college. I discovered Libby and got a digital library card from the Nashville library and now I’m reading again! I love it so much! Hard to believe it’s all free. (FYI: You guys who are complaining about which books are available... haha. That’s not the app. That all depends on the library you use. Essentially... libraries only have a certain number of digital copies licensed to them. They can’t just issue unlimited “copies” of the digital file because they pay for each one.) I use the Send to Kindle feature which works perfectly, and I also use the audiobook mode within Libby itself. One thing confuses me a little—there’s a “skip 15 seconds” button when I’m accessing audio controls from my iPhone lock screen or from my Apple Watch, but there isn’t a quick 15 second skip option on the app’s control screen itself. You have to do a little dragging motion on the screen to skip back or forward, which is a little fiddly to me, but it works okay.

Freezes Constantly. I found out about Libby through my local library and WOW, what a great resource! Even prior to 2020, I was taking advantage of I. I was thrilled to have access to magazines I couldn’t even subscribe to, because they’re printed in the UK, and I’m in the US. It’s fantastic that I can use this, free of charge, with my library card. I’ve only read a handful of books through Libby, but that’s my personal preference—nothing beats turning a page for me. When my library doesn’t have a physical copy of a book, though, I have lucked out with Libby! My current issue with the app is that it constantly freezes. I use the Zoom feature so I don’t strain my eyes, but the app freezes. I can’t zoom back out, turn a page, or do anything except force close the app and open it again. For the last few weeks, the freezing has amounted to me having to force close the app three times, each night, before it functions properly again. My app is up to date, but I’m hoping my review will push an update through to fix this problem. The freezing malfunction has turned using Libby, which has been a fun experience, into a nightmare. Please fix!

I like the Libby app for its many features and ease of use. The Libby app allows me to switch easily between libraries, offering me a lot of choice. I wish there was a greater selection of audiobooks, but that is not the fault of the app or NYPL. The app makes audiobooks very accessible. Due to my schedule, I end up returning and re-borrowing the same book frequently, but there is no penalty for this borrowing approach other than short waits once in a while. The Libby app is thankfully minimalistic, instead of being the kind of bloated, slow feature dump many apps have become (Fantastical 3). It is simply stress free, mostly. Once in a while, if I stop listening for an hour, I lose my place in a book. I’m guessing that this is not an app flaw, but life in the fast wireless zone or ? I just make sure I recall where I was and I’m back to the bookmark fast enough. I use the Libby app exclusively to listen to audiobooks... the filter for them is easy to set. What a great way to listen to books versus the tools of yore. The history feature assists me in returning to partially read books. I give it 5 stars for myself.

Best thing since the printing press!. I am an avid, daily basis Kindle reader, and also love to listen to audio books while driving, hiking, working out, doing housework and yardwork, etc. Before I got Libby, I spent ridiculous amounts of money buying Kindle books and audio books. Books are my addiction! Now, with Libby, I can read and listen to my heart's content for free, thanks to my wonderful library system. In the past two years since I discovered Libby, I have bought zero audio books and only a handful of physical books (that I need for my work). This has saved me thousands of dollars, and allows me to carry "huge stacks" of books wherever I go, all magically contained in one small handbag (text books on my Kindle Paperwhite, audio books on my cell phone). Saves my painful joints from lugging big books around, saves me crazy amounts of money, and saves the trees and environment. Libby is EXTREMELY user friendly, even for technically challenged folks like me. I have begged every one of my reader friends to set themselves up with Libby STAT!!! 🌟📚🌟🎧🌟

Fantastic but a little flawed. It’s so wonderful to be able to take out digital books and audio books for free! That said, the system is funky - so many books I wanted weren’t available, so I had to put holds on them. Then they ALL started coming in at the same time, so I couldn’t read them fast enough. There should be a way when a book appears on your shelf to say, I’m not ready, give it back to me in two weeks, and let it bump to the next person in line! So simple and would make everyone happy. I realized I could return it and then put a hold on it again, but it was annoying to have to find the work around. Even more frustrating, the book I was reading expired and I wasn’t able to renew it since people were waiting - now it’s gone! I’ll get it back in a couple weeks, but by then I’ll have started a new book and forgotten half the story! Finally, my dream would be to be able to switch between reading on the screen and listening to the audio, so I don’t need to have two books going at once - I start mixing them up and would much rather just absorb one at a time. All of these things seem super easy to do with a digital app, so I hope Libby will make some of these changes!

Great app with decent features. I’ve used this app for just over a year and have borrowed hundreds of books. I use it to listen to books while working, driving, getting stuff done, or just chilling. Like a regular library, if there are books that you would like to borrow, but are currently in use by someone else, you can place a hold on them. The app tells you approximately how long the wait will be, and can borrow the book automatically if there is space on your shelf. It keeps a record of what you’ve borrowed, but tags you place on books either don’t last for extended periods of time, or there’s a limit to how many you can have. Unfortunately, it doesn’t identify books that you’ve borrowed while browsing for something new. You have to review your history to see if you’ve borrowed a book previously. Also, the app will show all titles that they have on record, including those not available through the library card(s) you have on record. However, you can’t read the description of books that are not available to you to borrow. In general this is an easy to use app and fairly intuitive. When using an audio book, it will continue to play even while using another app or the screen is off.

Reading more than ever thanks to Libby!. I adore this app! I’ve read more books since downloading this app than I’ve read in years. I love to read but I rarely bring my books with me wherever I go. With this app I always have a pile of books in my phone. Very often I’m able to find new books available through the app that I want to read but don’t have the budget to purchase. There are audio versions available of many books. My favorite feature is the highlight feature. There are 3 colors of highlight so I can organize my highlights easily. I use one color for resources mentioned in the book, one for passages I want to read again and another for action items. The best part of this feature is that the highlights stay even when you return the book! So say you don’t finish a book in 21 days and you’ve highlighted a ton. Place a hold and when it’s delivered back to you, all your highlights are there and it remembers where you left off. I was so grateful to have this through the pandemic and I’m now completely obsessed with the app, telling everyone I know to download it and get reading!

Amazing!. To be honest, I started listening to audiobooks via public libraries with the OverDrive app. I tried Libby about 2 months later and have stuck with it since, even though both are adequate. Libby is easy to use and I love you can put multiple books on hold and also check out any number of audiobooks at any given time. I’m signed in to 10 libraries, as many books are already checked out or they don’t have the one I want. I also enjoy the ebook function of Libby too. Overall, I’m satisfied. Please don’t mess app up with future updates. ADDENDUM: Overdrive app is being shut down, leaving us only with Libby. I’m good with this. I, at one time paid a monthly fee to listen to audio books and get the one book to own 1x per month. To be honest, these days if I really want a book in print, I buy it, they’re cheap enough. But audiobooks don’t take up space I don’t have anymore like I did when I was younger. Alas, I deviate. I get all my audiobooks from borrowing from my extensive library network. I don’t pay a monthly fee anymore and I get the audiobooks I want 98% of the time. I’m happy.

I love Libby!!. Old Review: The first time I downloaded this app, it wouldn’t let me use it because I use an iPod touch and don’t have data. I re-downloaded the app a few months later and works fine. I loved Overdrive a lot but the new layout of Libby is very nice. However, after I entered my library card number it said I am barred from borrowing. I will go to the library and see if I need to pay fines or return books but if that’s not the problem then I will have to re-rate the app 1 star. (Overdrive will not let me borrow books because of this either) Update: I love Libby! Both of the problems I mentioned in my previous review were fixed when I re-downloaded the app. It works amazingly well, the layout is so smooth and simple to use, and I have found a lot of fun books to read! I absolutely love Libby and I will recommend it to others! My one suggestion is that they add more books! :) But that’s true of every reading app and library. This app’s layout and book options are so much better than any other reading app I have ever had! Thanks so much for this awesome app and great reading resource!

Change to Libby from the Overdrive App. I have started my switch to Libby from Overdrive as my county library system has notified us that Overdrive will no longer be used at some point in 2023. I have found a number of deficiencies with Libby - * on my book shelf, my checked-out books are no longer sorted by date checked out, so it is much harder to locate the book that is closest to expiring * on my book shelf, a title disappears as soon as it expires. I like to keep the expired titles on my shelf until I get a chance to add the title to my spreadsheet of books that I have read. Once my spreadsheet is updated, I delete the title from Overdrive. * when searching my library for new titles, I no longer see short descriptions and have to click on each individual title to see information on the book (this is probably my biggest frustration) * when searching my library by author, the list that is returned does not include the series name if the book is part of a series. Edited in September 2022 - I continue my 2 stars…. My latest frustration is a book where I prefer to see 2 columns at a smaller but not smallest font and Libby will only allow one column at the font I prefer or two columns at a tiny font….

So much improved!. When Libby replaced Overdrive as my Library’s preferred reader Libby wasn’t compelling at all but over the years Libby has morphed into a very usable e-reader and audio book tool. I especially like the much improved ability to manage and search multiple libraries. Still some problematic usability gaps though: 1) the recent interface refresh made navigation especially clunky. One thing that is bothersome is I’ll be listening to a book, decide to (while listening) search or browse to find additional books then find it difficult to get back to the book I’m listening to. 2) not all of us can afford devices with tons of memory and I still miss the Overdrive feature of being able to download then delete audiobooks chapter-by-chapter. 3] downloading process will inexplicably get stuck in middle of download and require restarting. 4) when doing multiple downloads I’d much prefer that the process function book-by-book rather than all books simultaneously. 5) synchronization across devices isn’t 100% reliable. All in all Libby has moved from something I tolerate to something I can recommend.

Type size won't stay the same. I have switched back and forth between Kindle and Libby for several years. Like both apps and use them for different reason. The one thing I don't like about the Libby app is that when I use the Libby setting for a book and reset the size of the type it doesn't stay where I set it. The longer I read the smaller they type gets. Some evenings I read for hours. I'm an older reader and need the type just a bit larger but not huge. It's aggravating to have to keep stopping ever few pages and close the app and reopen it to get the type setting to return to where I set it. Is there something I need to know and do to keep the type the same size through the whole book. I don't have this problem when I use the Kindle app. Really like the easy of using Libby but may have to go back to Kindle so I'm not always and stopping and restarting ever few pages. Update. I have gone back to using Kindle when ever possible due to the fact that no changes have been made to keep the print the same size through out the entire book. This is not a problem in Kindle

Latest Update - almost. Update- this version is much better as to the search and title details function. However the due date filter in the Loans section does not work to sort all the books on the shelf in due date order. It puts books with holds on them before a book due much earlier. While I see some reasoning for this, I would think that the filer should just put them in order. If it is important for people to know which books on their shelf are on hold by other people, then create another filer. Original: I love using Libby and the ease of getting books from my library. However the newest big update makes it a pain to get to the Title details and to return books. Why did they move these items? I used to be able to do everything from the shelf. I now have to go into the book, click on the upper right corner, and then find Title Details or Return book in the lower right corner to get there. I love reading mysteries, especially series or other books from the same author. Therefore I am constantly accessing the Title details makes finding the next book in the series or other books from the same author easy.

Misleading. Into Thin Air was one of my favorite books of all time, and I was hopeful that this book will prove equally as insightful. To the contrary, it’s my observation that there are a number of facts that were misrepresented in this book (full stop), there are connections made by the author that were not appropriate or accurate. Additionally there a piece of historical and factual information that were completely left out of this book. The author chooses to connect specific bad/horrible decisions of some individuals to an entire group of individuals who are no way associated with The bad actors or their behavior. It is totally unfair to label all Germans as Nazis, and it is unfair to portray a peace loving organization and community like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Based on a couple of bad actors, that are no way associated with that organization. In short, there are minority groups, of all kinds out there that continue to be misunderstood because they are misrepresented, and that is detrimental to everyone... including the learner. Unless we are able to get honest and clearly written information about any specific group then we are perpetuating the division that separates parts of our communities. #disappointed

Overdrive is so much more user friendly. I have been using Overdrive on my iPad to listen to audiobooks for many years and loved it. So user-friendly. Now I am forced to use Libby which is not user-friendly at all. In future updates, please incorporate the great features from Overdrive. Thankfully I was able to sync my lists from Overdrive, otherwise, I'd be completely lost. If I fall asleep listening to my books, I have a devil of a time figuring out where I left off and when finally do go back, the app buffers and buffers until I force quit and go back again. I loved the feature that showed a book I may be looking for is already in my history. Finding my lists is difficult...no lines or icons on the left to view my account (loans, holds, wishlist), bookshelf, files, history, settings, help, etc. No time and date stamp on bookmarks. I have yet to find an easy way to search for all audiobooks, newly released audiobooks, search for a new audiobook I've heard of recently, know which audiobooks are available now, or how to recommend a new audiobook, etc. These features may be part of Libby but they’re hidden very well. If that's your intent, good job. Please make Libby more like Overdrive. Thank you!

OK, but still needs work. Tried it once before but found it to be lackluster. So I began using it again to prepare for the upcoming forced switch from Overdrive. There have been improvements but more are needed. The interface is beautiful but this is not the reliable functioning of Overdrive. For starters, advancing or going back in an audiobook which is what I mostly read has some sort of lag issue that causes the app to have to stop and think what is happening. It’s difficult to know where you left off in the bookmarks. The bookmarking system is vague with no exact location provided. My Overdrive history does not appear to transfer over. It may be that I can’t find it. Searching for books lacks the sense one can make out of a library catalog system. In Overdrive, the advanced search provides many ways to search for all types and formats of books. I realize the app is intended to be easier for folks who do not use libraries as often anymore but this app has more of a social media busyness feel which is most likely intentional given this fact. I will really miss Overdrive which more closely resembles Audible Books which is a great but costly app. Unfortunately, Libby feels like a cheap knock off.

So much better than its predecessor, Overdrive.. The Libby app has saved me from boredom for over a year now, while becoming a homebody during Covid! This app has made many improvements since my library switched from Overdrive to Libby. I can listen to audiobooks on my phone or computer/tablet, and I can borrow e-books to read on my Kindle or from my phone, tablet or computer... and just like the Kindle app, it saves my place across devices. Because of Libby, I have been able to get rid of my Kindle Unlimited membership which cost $9.99 per month. However, I do keep my Audible membership, because I find that my local library system, though large, is often missing one or more books from a series. But this is not the fault of Libby. I have tried other apps for books and audiobooks, but Libby is by far the most user-friendly and consistent book/audiobook application that I have found. For someone that goes through 10 to 12 books per month, be it audio or e-books, this app is fairly seamless and has saved me tons of money! I would pay a small monthly fee but… Shhhh!

Perfect Access to Libraries. Libraries are becoming antiquated, especially after the pandemic. It is not very easy for me to go to or from a library, to wander around looking for random or specific books, and keep up with dates to avoid late fees. Having access to my library from my phone, being able to check out or hold books instantly, to get notifications for hoods or returns, and for books to be automatically returned when they are due, Libby is a wonderful experience. There are features that allow you to place a hold, knowing exactly how many people may be doing the same and how long it might take, and user friendly texts and links to extend holds if you’re not ready to check out another book just yet. I love that books are automatically returned, so that even if I forget about it I won’t be charged. I can just check the book out again to finish it when I can. Highlighting, bookmarking, and finding definitions are all so easy to do, and progress is measured as you go with clearly marked page numbers, percentages, and estimated times for how long it will take you to finish. Multiple library cards can be linked and used from anywhere, so when I travel long distances I can take my libraries with me. I can take my books over state lines without worrying about getting them back by a certain time! Because the automatic return process eliminates fees I feel that this app has perfected public access to information through the library system. I highly recommend this app.

Libby vs Kindle. I have a Kindle Oasis. It is an Ereader only, and can be read in any light situation, including outside in sunlight. The light is automatically adjusted. The font and print size can be adjusted I DO NOT want to read books on my iPhone. I also have an MacBook Pro which does not have apps and is not very portable. PLEASE either purchase the library books for Kindle or produce a dedicated ereader for Libby. The last three new books that I received from the library were not available for Kindle. I was excited to read the books and had waited a long time for them As far as I can tell, there is no notification that they are not for Kindle until they are available. I am very frustrated by the decision to not purchase the Kindle editions. I travel a lot and almost exclusively read on my Kindle instead of regular books. I love our library!! If I am to purchase a device for your Libby, what would you suggest? It is so disappointing to finally get a book that I can’t read except on my phone. Thank you for your feedback. The other issue that I have with Libby is that it does not include the recommend option that is available on Overdrive. I know that this is a common complaint- Only when Libby gets the recommend option will I like or use it!!! Libby does have nice graphics.

Love the latest ux update!!. A new layout dropped this morning and I am loving it! Especially the fact that within my loans, I can select category (like audiobooks) rather than having to scroll through all 27 books I have checked out to find my current audiobook. Yes. You read that number correctly. I check out a lot of books! I am a hardcore Libby user, especially since COVID hit. I’m in the app at least twice a day, every single day. So these updates are AWESOME. Many other awesome tweaks as well. So many new ways to easily see what you’ve checked out in the past. No more scrolling for a million years to try to find that one non-fiction book you checked out back in the spring of last year. A new function to find a “random” book in the library catalogue (the browser in me is already obsessed with this...it helps recreate what’s so great about wandering the physical aisles of the library). So much more I’m sure I haven’t even discovered yet. I can tell a lot of love and hard work went into this by people who use the app themselves. Thank you Libby devs! Keep up the awesome work!

New UI is painful. I have loved this app for years. They did a massive UI update recently and it has been a disappointment. I have waited a while to comment to see if using it would help me get used to it. No luck though, its just more difficult to do the things I used to do. The filtering and sorting functions when looking for a new book are duplicative and somehow make it harder to find new stuff. I regularly used my check out history that was available from the bookshelf to find the next book in a series. That’s now gone. The circular graphics for book titles on the new timeline are also a real head scratcher. Books are rectangular yet some design choice was made to force that into a circular mask. Was this tested and if so, was the focus group looking at a 50” monitor or their own mobile devices? I have made so many recommendations to friends and family because Libby really helped access great content. Someone there really loved the idea of creating a tagging system. I would be interested to see the testing on this feature. What percentage of your user base use tags, especially for books from a library that are following a well established library classification system. Too many clicks on the timeline to access the book info that was available with one click. I am bummed now as this app is so much harder to use.

Truly a blessing. I have always been an avid reader, even before pre-k my mom taught me how to read. My love for the hobby has only gotten stronger as I’ve gotten older and found even better genres & cover art & the millions of options to choose from. However, I’ve also always been terrible about returning books on time. I hate the thought of only having a certain amount of time to finish whatever book you’ve chosen. So unfortunately I have racked up many, many late fees. That’s where this app comes into play.. its legitimately given me back the amazing feeling of having books to read again because when they’re due back, it shows up on the homepage before you can even continue to your story. And what’s even better is that you can checkout from multiple libraries at once. Which I’m grateful for because for some reason, the main library I’ve been checking books out of doesn’t have all of the books in the current series I’m reading. So far this app is definitely amazing , 5 star worthy for sure!!!

So easy to use, with so many functions. I'm truly impressed with this app. I previously used overdrive on my desktop to check out e-books but Libby far outdoes the desktop experience. Navigating the catalog is easy. So too is the process for making holds. One of my favorite functions: you can "suspend" a hold, meaning that the book will not automatically be checked out to you, so you can advance in the line while reading other stuff, and reactivate the hold when you're ready. It really helps me plan when I'm going to read certain popular books that have long waits. I prefer to send the books to my Kindle, though the Libby app is good for reading as well. And though I am not a frequent audiobook user, it appears that the functionality for those works well. It supports multiple library cards, so you can browse various systems. For example, I check the LA city and county libraries, which each have their own catalog, to find the shortest waits for what I want. Libby has helped me rekindle a love for reading (plus saved me a ton of money) and I recommend anyone interested in digital books use it.

I love this app, this app is a miracle. This app is wonderful because if you don’t have time to go to the library you just have to turn on the Libby app and you can hold and borrow any book. This app is also very easy to set up, just put in your library cards numbers under the barcode and the library you go to then every book in the library is right on your device a tap away! When you hold a book there is information on how many copies of the specific book are in use, what number you are in line waiting for that book, and an estimated answer on when you will get the book. If you borrow a book you have two weeks to read the book. If you don’t have room in a bag for books then you can bring your device anywhere and get to any book in the library. When reading a book you can see what page you are on and you can even define words by clicking on the word and hitting define, definitely easier then going on google while trying to read a book and looking up the definition of a word! So this app is awesome and it’s a miracle to have such a good app! DOWNLOAD THIS APP NOW!!! 😇

Love this app!!!. I can’t express how much this app (and my local library) saved me during the days of lockdown and the long months of social distancing through this pandemic. I was already a frequent user before that, but boy howdy did my use increase when COVID came along. I find the app very easy to use now. The very early versions were a bit less easy and used up too much storage for my phone, but I haven’t had those problems for years now. I use Libby on my phone and tablet. Managing my loans is a matter of a few clicks, and it’s easy to check the status of my holds as well. I’d say I mostly use Libby to listen to audio books, which is MUCH easier than the old pre-Libby Overdrive system of downloading the MP3 files… It’s also easy to check out an ebook and then get the Kindle version to read on my various devices. I will say that Libby’s e-reader is not as user-friendly as the Kindle app for iOS, so I only use Libby’s when there is not a Kindle version of the ebook available. Libby’s reader is a bit clunky, but quite serviceable if you must read with it. If you’re a library user you really need to be using Libby!

Best free app ever!!. I never thought I’d be a fan of anything other than the written word. I am a die-hard fan of paper-and-ink-books, but due to chronic illness I am not always able to hold them to read. Audio books saved the day for me and Libby in particular. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I found myself no longer able to frequent my local library as I once had. I’m so glad a librarian gave me a pamphlet introducing me to Libby. I now have access to a library’s worth of books to borrow from the comfort of my own home, any time day or night. I love that I can: set my preference to “audiobooks”, check up on the books I’ve placed on hold, search by title, author or genre, and hear samples of a book before I borrow it. I can pause or mark chapters as needed and easily find my spot if I dose off while listening (which happens often because I use them to help me sleep too), so I never miss a moment of my story. There is always a list of books suggested by librarians too which I love to peruse when I am out of ideas. Some of my new favorites are books I once thought I’d never touch. My huge heartfelt THANKS to LIBBY and all who make her possible!!!

Fantastic! A few suggestions though.... After using OverDrive, I decided to try out Libby since the app looked so much more upgraded, if that's the right word. The interface is absolutely beautiful; borrowing books from the library is easy; and I love how my bookshelf looks more than I liked the one from OverDrive. I only have a couple of suggestions, however. 1) When I'm reading from the iBooks app, one feature I really like about it is the gray scale it uses, along with the day scale, sepia scale, and night mode. It would be absolutely awesome if Libby used this gray scale as well! And 2) I'm not sure if this was just a bug, but once when Libby froze, I had to force quit the app and re-launch it. However, I had to go through the entire "Welcome to Libby, please sign in" screen. For awhile it wasn't letting me sign in with my library card number until I had to start the app over again. It's just a tiny, minor thing, and it might have been just a bug, but I thought it was a bit odd. Nonetheless, I still think this app is awesome, and I'm so glad I downloaded it! You guys have done a fantastic job at designing this app, and it's helped me get back into reading again! So thanks! :)

Could be great. So I love the convenience of the app. I don’t have lots of time so I like being able to access books through the app. The thing is there are more things I don’t like than what I do like which is why I rated it at 3 stars. First I don’t like how you can’t check out for as long as you would a regular book. Again I don’t have a lot of time so I don’t get to read as often as I would like too which leaves me always just a small portion of the way through when my time is up and I can’t recheck it out because someone else is usually waiting on it. So I have to wait weeks to continue reading it which is annoying. If I’m remembering to get on and recheck it out I should be able to, like how you would do in person. I’m also not sure how there’s such limitations to digital copies. It’s digital books should be more easily accessible. 2nd I don’t like that you can see the ratings on books but can’t read the reviews or rate the book yourself. There should also be tabs in your side bar for categories like favorite books or books you want to read etc. I get you can use the tags for that but I just feel it would be easier to have tabs. Maybe once I get a tags system of my own going I’ll feel a little differently about it. It’s a good app, a great idea but needs work.

What a wonderful, horizon expanding app. Just wonderful. Virtual access to any library if you have a membership card, with access to magazines and other pubs as well as books and audio books. Managing your borrowing is great and best of all no late returns or fees, or probs with the puppy destroying a copy. The app also allows you to choose your reader of choice and multiple formats. The app also provides tags which the user can use to personalize and manage their selections and activities - very clever. Many of the icons are color coded and have various attributes and clues so it’s easy to see at a glance what the status is and who has what. All in all, just about anything you could hope for with an app of this type, and the developers constantly improve it. They do care, and it’s really wonderful and a door to the wider world and universe for anyone that would otherwise have a problem going to the library in person. For those who don’t have physical access problems, then there is no limitations on your quest for knowledge, imagination, and entertainment.

I love this app but it also broke my heart. As a book lover, Libby is one of my favorite apps. I go on it pretty much every day to check on my holds or look for new books to read. It’s super intuitive and user friendly and just generally makes me really happy. I got it in 2017 and never really had any problems with it until yesterday, when my Libby app simply wouldn’t open. I followed the troubleshooting guide on the Libby website. I tried closing the Libby tab on my phone and reopening it, restarting my phone and trying to open it, updating the app and trying to open it then, but nothing worked. I eventually tried deleting the app and redone loading it. That worked, but I ended up losing ALL of my data. Libby no longer had my book history, and all the tags I’d spent years curating were gone. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was heartbroken. Aside from that one mishap though, Libby’s a great app! Am I disappointed that it doesn’t save my data based on my library card? Yes. Can I see why they don’t? Yes. Hopefully the bug fixes and I won’t have this problem again, but in the meantime I’ll definitely keep using Libby. It’s just that I’ll also probably be saving my tags on Goodreads too.

Excellent reading experience!. I remember years ago trying to read books on overdrive and really hating the experience. Kindle and Apple Books are great, but Libby is practically their equal and a great to read library books. The Libby allows you to use Kindle as an option, but it is really unnecessary. That said, I have a couple of requests; it would be great if Apple Books was also a reading platform option. The second request has to do with copy and pasting. When I go to the library or check out an item through a service like Libby, it is often for the purpose of research. I is usually the kind of research where I need to provide footnotes or where I will need to quote a passage from a book to support a position. One of the things I love about the eBook reader concerns the ability to copy and pasted and the eReader will automatically include the page and book information which is very helpful. So far, I usually end up purchasing an eBook so I can accomplish this. This might be a small request, but it would really help those like me who are doing a lot of research and could use the Copy and Paste capability.

Libby to the rescue!. Not being able to check out books during the pandemic was almost as anxiety producing as the virus itself. I need to read. And while I prefer to read real books, the ones with paper and printed letters, Libby did all that it could to make my digital reading experience the best that it could. Browsing for new books is not only simple, but fun. The interface is pleasing, playful and functional. The books are presented in a way that provides a similar experience to browsing in a library or bookstore, scanning covers and reading backflaps. It is easy to see what is available immediately, and if it isn’t, what the wait might be. The reading experience is straightforward, though it can take a little practice to navigate jumping back and forth through chapters if you need to. Returns and managing holds are simple as well. All in all, a five star experience. I am still looking forward to my library reopening, I miss the books, the librarians, and the community, but Libby did all that it could to take care of my reading needs during the shutdown. Thank you for that!

No improvement to Overdrive. I’ve been using Overdrive for a few years, and while it is clunky and a little awkward, it has been my primary novel reading interface for at least two years. I was excited when Libby was announced and finally downloaded and logged in. I was sorely disappointed to find that it’s essentially the same app with some poor design decisions layered on top. A huge header greats you on every page taking up almost half the screen real estate, there are large graphics around the card on library pages that seem to have no purpose. And the kicker is an always present footer with a huge circle image in the center. This footer is persistent throughout the app (well, not reading at least). It is *very* distracting. The footer provides three links, not enough to justify hogging screen space. Finally, the side menu, accessed by tapping on Libby’s face (why?) is a Library level navigation element, though it doesn’t seem like anyone described it as such during the discovery meeting because it’s a convoluted mess, just try switching Libraries when your card isn’t accepted at one. Overdrive was never a sleek modern app, but Libby just adds slick nonsense over the same essential functionality.

Good app...needs some work. Libby is a great upgrade from Overdrive— it’s faster, has a cleaner user experience, and combines listening and borrowing into one app. These are great improvements! However, we’ve had a few problems: for some reason, when we go to listen where we left off in a book, the “bookmark” is off— sometimes it has jumped forward, sometimes its jumped back, and often it starts the book over from the beginning. One time it took the audio to the very end of the book, but that only happened once. It’s quite frustrating to have to search for the place we last stopped the book, particularly when we have to stop the car. The other issue we encountered had to do with downloading— your audiobook will not download unless you are on WiFi, and the only way to get it to stream is if you find the “play online” button. However, it isn’t an intuitive switch. I had to hunt and search the app to figure out why the book wasn’t automatically downloading (over LTE), and then manually switch it over. Over all, Libby is a good start, but needs some work. I’m confident the app will get where it needs to be with some time and diligent work. Thanks for reading!

Love the app, but needs more titles. Libby has been a great resource, especially during COVID. I’m a busy mom who loves to read, but can rarely indulge in sitting down to read a hard copy. Libby to the rescue! I have enjoyed being able to listen to audiobooks on my phone, in the car, and on Bluetooth speakers while folding clothes, weeding the garden, crafting, cooking, etc. I love the features such as 15-second rewind, bookmarks, and Reading Journey to keep track of when I start and finish the books. I also love being able to put books on hold, extend holds if I’m not ready to start a book, having the choice to resume where I left off, even if the book is returned and I check it out again. My only complaint is the lack of selection, especially for audiobooks. Typically, when searching for a specific book, it is not there 8 times out of 10. I suppose that this has more to do with the library collection than with the app. If that is certainly the case, then Libby gets 5 stars from me. I also use Hoopla when it has a title I’m looking for that Libby doesn’t, but I much prefer the Libby platform’s capabilities for audiobooks. Libby really is a very useful and user friendly app.

Expect Delays. Extremely buggy. The theory is nice, and if the app worked properly, I’d be happy as a clam. The customization options are excellent, the interface is intuitive and easily navigated, and while it would be nice to be able to integrate with other reading apps, like Goodreads, I have no complaints about the concept behind Libby’s design. But oh my goodness… the bugs! Not only does the app become ungodly slow after a little browsing (heaven forbid you should want to search more than once a session), half the time it won’t do simple things, like download books or sync between devices. Furthermore, even while standing next to my router, where I would assume I have a strong signal, it won’t let me read books on my shelves without downloading. This becomes problematic when the app decides downloading isn’t in the cards. I’ve done my due diligence, testing the app on different devices and on different networks, turning everything off and then on again, resetting and even deleting and reinstalling the app multiple times, but to no avail. I’ve stopped short of flinging my iPad out the window, but only just, and mostly out of concern over potentially hitting someone in the process of defenestration. Please fix this app. Library and book lovers far and wide implore you!

Perfect for book lovers of all kinds!!!. This app is absolutely perfect! I love it! I used to be an extremely avid reader, and couldn’t stop reading, then I started struggling with mental health issues and didn’t find enjoyment in reading anymore. Until my sisters recommended the app. I’ve finally gotten back into reading again. I’m a reading a book a day again and I’m enjoying it. This app made me fall in love with reading again. The books are so accessible, and it’s convenient and easy to use! Heck my boyfriend hated reading and would only read if I read the book to him, after I stopped reading in general he did too since I wouldn’t be there for him to listen to. But now? I can read at my own pace and he can listen at his own pace too! The Libby app comes with audiobooks as well! Which he adores! We’re able to read the same book at the same time at our own pace! It’s amazing! This app is good I can’t hype it enough, and the fact that it’s free??? I’m so happy I got this app! If you love reading or listening to books you. need. this. app. 5/5 stars for sure!!!

Not the best app you can read on. I can read about a lot of things but there are some books that I really want to read that are not on Libby. You should make Libby where you can write stories too and you will be able to look in other books for stuff you might want to put in your book. Maybe you should add a lot more creativity to this boring app. I don’t really like this app because of that so I hope you can make it a lot better. The only good things on this app are that you can read books and I think the readers probably would want you to add some more stuff to this app. You could add that you can draw right anything you could desire. That would be one of the only thing that you could add to this app to make it a five star app. If you can’t do all of that at least give the apps more books and maybe I’ll give it a four star but I said maybe not yes. Whoever made this app is just trying to take it easy but if you want a five star app then add more stuff to this app but don’t make any worse. This is how you can make it worse. One take away books. Two have a bug. Three not have categories. Those are ways to make it worse so don’t do that but also it’s already bad enough so fix it!

Terrible to terrific - Because of LIBBY. The prior public library loan system was , frankly, terrible...so much so that I rarely used it because if you could figure out how to borrow a title it was near impossible to find the digital loan and more challenging to find out where to read the book. When “ Libby” announced, we’ll, I was skeptical. And oh was I surprised. Libby is an easy to use, system to find, borrow, read and use all of the digital materials available at a world class library here in Hamilton County. You can now use Libby to borrow up to three current magazine issues from a huge selection- from biking to Wired to interior design and fashion. Then there is an easy to use search function to find titles or authors even with just one or two pieces of information. Holds can be placed, audio books played and a bookshelf full of borrowed material effortless manageable from within the app. Libby alerts you when your loan is available and when items are about to expire. All in a free app that adds quality to your life and entertainment along with learning and education. What a win-win with something in it for everyone.

ANYONE WHO READS NEEDS THIS APP!. I use this app more than any other app I have! I don’t want to be anywhere without a book- and boy, I have TONS! Thanks to Libby, I have discovered many new authors and genres. If I see a book recommended for purchase in another app, I check Libby for it before buying it. I DO still buy books and support authors, particularly authors who have traditionally not been supported or picked up by the publishing industry. But with Libby I can learn more about what I want to have as a digital copy or a hard copy before buying. (I also read A TON of books and couldn’t possibly afford to buy every single book I read, so this app is perfect)! If you support your local library but tend to forget to return books on time (as I used to do), you’ll love this app. The digital books send a reminder that they are due (in case you need to renew them) but it’s literally impossible to return them late- a feature that I love! The book is automatically returned on the due date- easy peasy! It’s the PERFECT APP for bibliophiles and anyone who likes to just grab a book to look things up. It’s a library right at your fingertips!

Not as good as overdrive. I use overdrive a lot, it's my most used app, so I'm pretty familiar with it. This is definitely a comparison review between overdrive and Libby. Overdrive wins. In overdrive, you can choose the margins as well as number of columns per page. These are not options in Libby and I noticed a huge difference. I couldn't get past the fact that almost a quarter of my screen wasn't being used. Overdrive also has more font options to choose from. The one thing I could not get past was the page animations, or lack there of, in Libby. Maybe it was too smooth? idk, but I didn't like it. Overdrive keeps the time and page and chapter counts at the bottom of the screen. You have to interrupt your reading to know what time it is or where you are in the book with Libby. I do like having the library and shelf buttons easily accessible, and it is cool that as soon as you borrow the book is in your shelf and you don't have to actually select download. I can definitely get behind the library and interface portion of Libby, but as a reader, it could do better, even if it just copied overdrive. If I had a choice, I'd just stick with overdrive since I spend more time using it as a reader than as a library or bookshelf.

Good app, but could be improved. I read ebooks and listen to audiobooks all the time. I have more than one library card and like that Libby remembers the titles I’ve searched for, so finding a book is more efficient than in Overdrive. But, I’d love a universal search that would look through ALL of my libraries at once. I love that all my titles are on one shelf and I can see the due dates. Holds are also clearly manageable. But I need a Wish List like Overdrive. When I hear of a new title I want to read, I’m often not ready to borrow it or put a hold on it at that moment. Regarding audiobooks, I still use Overdrive because Libby does not have skip ahead, and more importantly skip back when I don’t catch something. I use that often in Overdrive and Libby needs to add that feature. For ebooks, I still read on the Kindle app because Libby does not have the means of highlighting and then exporting the highlighted passages. I am a member of a number of book clubs and love to highlight passages for future reference. So basically, as Libby stands, I only use it to search for, place holds, and borrow books. Please make these changes so I can completely move to Libby, instead of juggling 3 apps.

Love Libby!. I don’t usually write reviews, but I really love this app! It’s so easy to use and intuitive; not to mention super cute! I particularly like the fact that once I return a book in Libby, it automatically disappears from my library. I don’t have to spend a ton of time trying to figure out what books I still have checked out or what books I already own, like other ebook apps. I’ve recommended Libby to several others, including my mom, who is somewhat technologically challenged. I believe it will be an easy app for her to figure out, especially since it ties directly into the library and there aren’t a ton of steps to check out a digital book. The only thing I wish for is the ability to sync across my devices, as I like to read on my iPad but usually use my phone to read when I have just a few minutes of downtime. And I haven’t quite figured out how to best use the Tags feature yet, nor have I attempted an audiobook (though I’m looking forward to it on my next road trip). Thanks for the great app! I’ve been using it for my library reading exclusively for the past few months and will continue!

A great start. This is basically the same app as Overdrive, just prettier. One thing I love about this app that Overdrive doesn't do though, is that it lists all your loans on one page. I live in the Los Angeles area and actually have four library cards from surrounding library systems, so it's great to be able to view all those loans in one place. Which brings me to the thing that irritates me about both this app and the Overdrive one. And maybe it's just a technical issue, but I hate that neither app has a universal search function. You have to switch libraries every time you want to search for something at multiple systems. I'd love just one consolidated search that searches all the libraries that I have cards for. I realize most people probably won't have as many cards as I do, but it's seriously irritating to have to search multiple times for a book, and then if it's in multiple places, to remember which one had a shorter wait time, etc. If it was just one single search list, it'd make my life so much easier. And considering that they seem to understand that people might have multiple cards, since they included a combined bookshelf, it just seems like an odd omission to not have a combined search function.

We’re going to need more wine.. Gabriel Union’s book of essays is a quick, easy, fun, relatable must read for every African American women trying to make it in this crazy world. Having now heard her story, I better understand how Ms. Union was able to bring my all time favorite TV character, Mary Jane Paul, to life so convincingly. I found it very satisfying the way the author touched on a wide range of weighty and painful topics, from trying to fit in at an all white school and enduring sexual assault, to the realization that preparation and accomplishment cannot overcome racial bias, with honesty, clarity, and humor. Every single chapter contains some truth that touched me deeply and made me want to call my daughter, my friend, my sister, or my white colleagues and say - read this, this is what I’ve been trying to tell you about how I feel and what I’ve experienced. I was moved by the unasked question she harbors for Prince, one that every accomplished and insecure being desires to be answered. Thank you Gabriel Union for using your own colorful language and personal experiences to express some of the fears, regrets, frustrations, and hopes shared by this 61 year old woman who is still rising up each day and chasing that joy.

Horrible changes . Pls reevaluate. No longer will I or friends endorse Libby. Sorry to leave.. There seems to be a robust review which I will likely delete Libby as my choice to read and go back to Overdrive. It seems s constantly alerting me on on how many are waiting, yet I have supported my libraries substantially for years, and this is “ in your face” . I often return earlier but yet when I miss a book, I wait full length of time as I have observed very, very few return books early. I do not care for your recent changes at all. Sorry this app has gotten much too invasive. Can no longer enjoy a right to enjoy books after my donations and giving untold numbers of books to libraries. I ask for nothing but a pleasurable experience and “ Libby” has ruined that. Sorry you must do better as all of my friends are voicing same concerns. No one likes your overhaul. Why don’t you consider we pay taxes to fund libraries and many give above that amount. It is insult to see how many are reading books to rush us and I’ve even returned without even reading. I wait full time with no one returning earlier than 14 days, and I return promptly. It is over for me. Sorry. You gone opposite and donations will also be halting. Sorry but too much is too much in your face. I’m very kind but this last change has irritated me .

Free books and audiobooks without having to leave home!. Libby is an amazing app. As long as you have a public library card you can borrow numerous books and audiobooks and get others reserved. Even if you have to wait for some of the most popular books, they will eventually come to the top of your queue. My daughters and I have been sharing recommendations about our favorite reads after using this app. Our experiences have been great even though we all live in different cities and work through different public libraries. For me, the best part is having access to audiobooks. My work schedule keeps me very busy so I miss having enough time to read. But I can listen to audiobooks while I’m driving, walking, exercising, cooking or getting ready for bed. The audiobooks also often have a narrator with a specific accent or tone of voice that makes the book come alive even more. And if you happen to get the occasional book with a somewhat slow narrator (I’m talking to you, The Brothers Karamazov,) you can increase the speed slightly to make it work for you. If you enjoy reading at all you will love this app!