Libby

While I am a big fan of libraries, I must admit I spend very little time in them. This was the case even when I worked daily in higher education. I prefer to make use of technology to consume the books and journals that I read. I used to say that this was the case even when I owned the journal containing a paper I wanted to read and the journal was on a shelf on the other side of my office. I would take advantage of the access I had through my university library to download specific articles as pdfs allowing me to annotate as I read and store the composite of the article and my annotations in endnote. The online library was an important part of my work and recreation, but not the brick and mortar buildings.

In semi-retirement, my approach has changed some. I still use the University library for access to journals, but I mostly purchase the books (ebooks and audiobooks) I consume. The ebooks for the opportunity to annotate and search and the audiobooks mostly because I never bothered to explore other options.

I am no exploring other options partially as a function of having access to a couple of community libraries and partly because I like to explore. This brings me to Libby. This app, generated by OverDrive, allows me access to audiobooks and ebooks from community libraries. I still don’t have to visit the library if I don’t have time or access (I spend my time in a couple of locations) and I can’t cut back on my reading budget. I spend over $200 a year for the Audiobook program allowing me to own 24 audiobooks a year. Most of these I will never listen a second time so I could but back to the 12 book a year plan for those books I want to review. I might read a few ebooks once, but I tend to purchase ebooks I want to keep so I will likely use online access to library resources for audiobooks.

If you are a reader/listener, I would recommend you to explore OverDrive and Libby. The services and tools are easy to set up and offer a great opportunity.