Overdrive Libby is a brand new app that allows you to listen to audiobooks and read e-books from the public library. This app is not available in the Amazon App Store and so you have to download it from another market, such as the Good e-Reader Android App Store. This video tutorial teaches how you to allow for the installation of apps from unknown sources and sideload the app on your device.
Libby has a ton of functionality that main Overdrive app does not. It is easier to browse your library’s digital collection and borrow content. In the near future you will be able to get a library card through the app, instead of visiting your local branch.
Here is how the online signup process works; the app confirms a new patron’s residency and eligibility for a library card by checking the mobile phone number used to request the card against a national database of addresses associated with each number. The system then texts a code to that mobile number to confirm that the owner of the phone is requesting the card. If that address matches the service area provided by the library a card is automatically assigned and you can begin to borrow audiobooks and ebooks right away.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.