10 Hacks Every Libby User Should Know

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10 Hacks Every Libby User Should Know

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Emily Long is simply a freelance writer based successful Salt Lake City.

After graduating from Duke University, she spent respective years reporting connected the national workforce for Government Executive, a publication of Atlantic Media Company, successful Washington, D.C. She has astir a decade of acquisition arsenic a freelancer covering tech (including issues related to security, privacy, and streaming) arsenic good arsenic individual finance and travel.

In summation to Lifehacker, her activity has been featured connected Wirecutter, Tom’s Guide, and ZDNET. Emily has besides worked arsenic a recreation guideline astir the U.S. and arsenic a contented editor. She has a masters successful societal activity and is simply a licensed therapist successful Utah.


Libby is simply a work that connects users to their section room systems, giving them entree to an tremendous catalog of integer content, including e-books, audiobooks, and magazines—for free. If you're a scholar (or listener), you'll want to return advantage of these Libby tips and tricks for borrowing, organizing, and maximizing your loans.

Add aggregate room cards to spot readiness crossed different systems

You're not constricted to 1 room strategy connected Libby. The level allows you to link to aggregate libraries, truthful you tin return advantage of larger catalogs successful lawsuit 1 room has much titles aliases a shorter hold times for books you want to read. You still person to beryllium eligible for a room paper astatine each room you link to, but you could adhd your metropolis library, your region library, and a schoolhouse room to your relationship (or moreover return advantage of a friend's aliases family member's paper from a different city). Go to Menu > Add Library and hunt by room name, city, aliases zip code. Select the room to browse its collection, and travel the prompts to adhd that library's paper if you qualify.

Use airplane mode connected your Kindle to widen your indebtedness

Libby automatically returns titles arsenic soon arsenic your loans expire, truthful dissimilar pinch beingness books, you can't return other clip to decorativeness up. But if you're reference connected a Kindle, you whitethorn beryllium capable to get the title and instantly group your instrumentality to airplane mode to frost the loan. While your Kindle is offline, you tin return the title via the Libby app truthful the adjacent personification tin get it. Note that location are reports that this workaround, which is unsocial to Kindle, whitethorn nary longer beryllium disposable connected newer devices moving the latest software, but Reddit users suggest that changing the day connected your Kindle to earlier the return deadline and/or keeping the expired book unfastened could besides thief debar this issue.

Export your reference information to archive aliases adhd it to Goodreads

If you for illustration to way your reference history, you tin export a timeline of your activity, which tin beryllium saved successful a individual spreadsheet aliases uploaded to Goodreads. Tap Shelf > Timeline > Actions > Export Timeline and take a format—Table creates a shareable HTML page, while Spreadsheet downloads an editable expanse to your instrumentality (JSON is besides an option). Exports see accusation for illustration the title name, author, get date, publisher, and ISBN. If syncing to Goodreads, take Spreadsheet and follow the platform's import instructions.

Create civilization tags to shape your reference lists

Libby's tag strategy makes it easy to shape and benignant titles crossed aggregate lists, specified arsenic yearly reference lists, favorites, aliases TBR (to sanction a few). Simply spell to Tags > Actions > New Tag, adhd a sanction and description, and pat Create. When you want to adhd a title to 1 of these lists, deed Save connected the title's page and prime each applicable tags. Tap Tags connected the bottommost navigation to benignant aliases select tagged titles.

Set up notifications to get first entree to caller releases

Not each caller releases are instantly disposable to each room system, but you tin get a caput commencement connected borrowing pinch the "Notify Me" smart tag, which will alert you erstwhile your room adds titles you've tagged. When you find a title via hunt that your room doesn't offer, you'll beryllium prompted to create a Notify Me tag. You tin besides manually create 1 by pursuing the process for civilization tags and selecting Notify Me to move it into a smart tag. This tag besides useful for caller mag issues and caller contented from circumstantial authors aliases book series. Make judge you have push notifications enabled for Libby.

Pin hunt filters to spot what’s disposable to get immediately

If you decorativeness 1 book and want to instantly commencement another, you tin usage a hunt select to find titles that are disposable now alternatively than sorting done hold lists. Then, you tin pin that select truthful each search—even if different filters are applied—shows you only titles that are fresh to borrow. Go to Search and pat the 3 horizontal lines to unfastened the select list. Select available now > Show Titles, past property and clasp the select to unfastened the pop-up paper and pat Pin Filter. You tin travel the aforesaid process pinch different filters (if you only want to spot books and/or audiobooks, for example). Note that taxable filters can't beryllium pinned.

What do you deliberation truthful far?

Adjust your download settings to negociate retention space

Audiobooks tin beryllium retention hogs, and if you're listening to much than 1 title astatine a time, you whitethorn not want to give that overmuch of your device's abstraction to those files. Customize really titles are downloaded versus streamed via Menu > Settings > Download Rules, wherever you tin take whether to automatically download everything, nothing, aliases only titles nether 20 MB arsenic good arsenic alteration downloads connected wifi only (to debar mobile information usage).

Revisit your highlights and notes successful your reference travel aliases Read.Amazon

If you for illustration to item passages aliases adhd notes to books arsenic you read, you tin reappraisal these annotations for titles borrowed via Libby moreover aft you've returned them. In the Libby app, find the title and pat the screen image, past pat Reading Journey. You tin besides export these information via Actions > Export Reading Data. If you publication the title connected a Kindle device, notes and highlights are besides saved connected Amazon and visible connected Goodreads.

Search for skip-the-line books to bypass hold times

Popular titles and caller releases often rack up hundreds of holds successful a short magnitude of time, meaning you could beryllium waiting months earlier a transcript is disposable astatine your library. Some room systems will designate a fewer copies of these books arsenic "skip the line," meaning that they can't beryllium reserved aliases renewed and alternatively are claimed connected a first-come-first-serve ground erstwhile returned by the erstwhile user. These titles are marked pinch a shamrock icon, and if your room offers them, you tin find them via Search > Catalog Filters > skip the line.

Use the Suspend characteristic to stagger overlapping holds

If you person a agelong database of holds pinch varying hold times, you whitethorn occasionally person 1 aliases much books fresh to get astir the aforesaid time. If you're not fresh to publication a title arsenic soon arsenic it becomes available, you tin opt to suspend your clasp until you're done pinch the book you're presently reference aliases person much clip to commencement thing new. This keeps your spot successful line, truthful the book will beryllium yours arsenic soon arsenic you un-suspend your clasp and the title is returned by the existent user. In the app, spell to Shelf > Holds > Manage Hold > Suspend Hold, aliases pat Suspend adjacent to the title if it is fresh to borrow.

Emily Long is simply a freelance writer based successful Salt Lake City.

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