Tag: OverDrive

Replacing OverDrive with Libby

Posted on by Jamie

You may have heard the news by now that OverDrive, Inc. has decided to discontinue the OverDrive app in 2023. You may be wondering, “What does this mean for me? I love having free eBook access from the library!” Have no fear! OverDrive, Inc. has a second library app called Libby that will give you all the same access to the library’s eBook and audio book collection with a more user friendly app experience! Libby is made by the same people, with the same goal of connecting you to your library and to your favorite books, audiobooks, and magazines. Staff from the Aurora Public Library District will be with you every step of the transition. Feel free to give us a call at 812-926-0646 with any questions or stop into the Aurora or Dillsboro Branch with your device for in-person help with the new app. Make the switch soon because the OverDrive app will be completely discontinued by the end of April 2023.

FAQs

Why is the OverDrive app being discontinued?

OverDrive, Inc. has decided to focus their efforts on Libby and providing the best reading experience in one app. Unfortunately this is beyond the Library’s control.

Can I use Libby with my Kindle Fire?

Yes! You can sideload the app on your Kindle Fire tablet. Sideloading apps from sources you trust is safe and easy. Follow these instructions from Libby to sideload the app on your Kindle Fire.

What devices can I use with Libby?

You can download the Libby app on your mobile device or use Libby in your computer’s web browser.

You can download Libby on:

-iOS 10+ (get it from the Apple App Store)

-Android 5.0+ (get it on Google Play)

-Fire OS 5+ (get it directly from OverDrive Inc, the developers of Libby)

If you have a Windows computer, Mac computer, or a Chromebook, you can use Libby in your web browser at libbyapp.com. We suggest using the latest version of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge.

How do I sign in?

When you open Libby for the first time, follow the prompts to find our library and sign in with your library card and pin number. Make sure you choose the Aurora Public Library in Indiana and not Colorado or Illinois. It will say Indiana Digital Library. If you don’t have a pin number or do not remember it please give us a call so we can set one up for you.

Will my current loans and holds carry over to Libby?

Yes, your current loans and holds from the OverDrive app will be added to Libby as soon as you add your library card.

Note: Reading progress and bookmarks from the OverDrive app won’t sync to Libby when you switch. You may want to finish your current loans before switching or make a note of your progress and manually pick up where you left off in Libby.

How do I navigate the app?

Using the icons in the footer, you can:

-Tap search to search for titles.

-Tap Library to open the library collection you were most recently browsing.

-Tap shelf to see your loans, holds, and tags for all your libraries.

-Tap timeline to see your timeline.

Check out Libby’s FAQ page for more frequently asked questions.

#BigLibraryRead with Libby!

Posted on by Olivia

This fall, get ready to cozy up with a great new book without holds, waitlists, or overdue dates thanks to Libby! Overdrive, Libby’s parent company, is starting another #BigLibraryRead this November, providing all Libby users with free simultaneous reader access to A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger.

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.

Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.

Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.

And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.

Join in the conversation with other readers from around the world by visiting biglibraryread.com and selecting the discussion forum. Make a social media post about your reading adventures with the hashtag #BigLibraryRead to be entered for a chance to win a blanket, a new tablet, and some cool Libby swag!

Start reading November 2nd by logging onto Libby and checking out the title. It’s that simple! Not sure how to start reading e-books and e-audiobooks on Libby? Just ask a librarian or give us a call to get set up. This book club ends November 16th, so check out this title as soon as you can!

The #BigLibraryRead with Overdrive and Libby!

Posted on by Olivia

Check out November’s Big Library Read! This virtual book club run by Overdrive allows thousands of library patrons like you to check out the same e-book at the same time without any holds or wait lists!

This November, join thousands of other Overdrive and Libby users as we read Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards together! This wild, heart-pounding thriller is sure to keep those (virtual) pages turning. So, cozy up with a new book as the weather gets colder and get reading! Use the hashtag #BigLibraryRead on social media for a chance to win Libby swag, a tablet, and signed books by the author!

If you are new to Overdrive or Libby and would like assistance in setting up your account, please contact the Aurora or Dillsboro Public Libraries or speak to a librarian. We’re here to help!

Rainy Day Reads

Posted on by Shelby

April showers brought the May flowers, but it’s been pretty rainy still. With the weather as fickle as it’s been, I don’t want to leave my driveway. With OverDrive, it’s possible to lounge around my house all day without ever running out of things to read, watch, or listen to.

Here are some just-added items from the Indiana Digital Download Center:

Compulsion by Martina Boone

The Dysasters by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Captive Heart by Glynnis Campbell

Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly

Boy Erased by Garrard Conley

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Come Find Me by Megan Miranda

A Sucky Love Story by Brittani Louise Taylor

The Year We Left Home by Jean Thompson

Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

The Silent Invader by Thomas Wood

Place these upcoming releases on hold to read in your blanket fort!

Dead Man’s Mistress by David Housewright

Two Weeks by Karen Kingsbury

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Murder in the City of Liberty by Rachel McMillan

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes

Tightrope by Amanda Quick

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Neon Prey by John Sandford

Emily Eternal by M.G. Wheaton

So many books, so little time! Do you have a go-to rainy day read? My favorite might have to be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë if only for the opening paragraphs:

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.

I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.”

Happy Reading!

Urban Fantasy on OverDrive

Posted on by Shelby

If you use OverDrive with any regularity, you might have noticed that the featured books that scroll on the homepage change all the time. Right now, the featured books fit into Urban Fantasy, a subgenre of Fantasy.

Sometimes people hear the word “fantasy” and run in the opposite direction; it can be hard to imagine entire worlds and creatures beyond what our world is already filled with. Urban Fantasy happens in the real world with magical elements and creatures added, usually blending in with regular humans. While this genre is super popular with children and teens (think Harry Potter and Isabella Swan), there are plenty of adult titles for those of us who still choose to believe that anything is possible.

Here are a few of the titles that are featured on OverDrive:

Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series takes place in Cincinnati and features bounty hunter Rachel Morgan, a witch whose job is to make sure the vampires all get along.

Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series features the namesake, a mechanic who also has the ability to shapeshift into a coyote with neighbors ranging from a gremlin to a werewolf.

Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles features Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids who runs a bookshop and shapeshifts in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound.

Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series follows wizard Harry Dresden as he works for the Chicago Police Department, catching all things paranormal.

Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series is about MacKayla — Mac for short — who is a seer of the Fae trying to solve her sister’s murder.

Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series follows Merit, a former graduate student turned vampire who has to navigate the treacherous Chicago nightlife.

(And that’s just to page three of the featured books!) Chock-full of action and intrigue, these books will hook you and won’t let you put them down.

If you’re a fan of fantasy and the impossible with likable, realistic characters, then give Urban Fantasy a try! You can download any of these books to any device to read anywhere without the bulk of a physical book. All you need is an Internet connection (which you can use for free at any of our branches), the OverDrive app, your library card, and your pin number. If you’re unsure what your pin is or if you’ve never set one up before, stop by and see us and or give us a call. We can also walk you through downloading digital titles at the desk if you bring your device in.

Don’t forget about downloading the Libby app! Libby will put all of your library cards, downloads, and holds in one spot for your convenience. Ask us how!

Happy Reading!

National Library Week

Posted on by Shelby

It’s here! The week you’ve been waiting for all year! National Library Week is April 7 — 13 this year! Yay!

Libraries are full of so much more than books. Our shelves are full of fiction, nonfiction, picture books, early reading books, juvenile chapter books, teen books, audiobooks, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, and CDs. Our items are simultaneously full of reference and escape at the same time.

You can come in and connect to our WiFi for free, or hop onto one of the public computers to print copies or scan documents to your email. Need to make a copy of something? Find our public copy machine, and don’t be afraid to ask a staff member for help.

Visit our community information centers to learn about events taking place throughout the community. Or sign up for our newsletter either by visiting our website or by stopping by one of the desks to keep up-to-date on all things library-related. You can also like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or read more blogs! Learn about upcoming programs and events for all ages and interests. You’ll be the first to know (and sign up!) about all the cool stuff we have planned.

Have you checked out our digital collection yet? You can use your library card and pin number to access the Indiana Digital Download Center, a digital library full of thousands of titles, including videos and audiobooks. If you don’t know what your pin is or haven’t set one up yet, just stop by the desk or give us a call. Then you’ll be able to read on the go with your tablet or smartphone while not worrying about late fees, because when your loan has ended, the item will automatically check itself back in!

The Local History Library @ the Depot contains historical books and documents, yearbooks, newspapers, maps, and more on Aurora, Dillsboro, and the surrounding communities. The staff there would be happy to help you research your house or genealogy, or leave you alone to let you work in the quiet. The Dillsboro Public Library also houses the Local History Room downstairs with even more local history artifacts, photographs, and documents.

Are you looking to stock up your own library? On the third Friday and Saturday of every month, the Dillsboro Public Library promotes its $1 Per Bag sale, where you can visit the Book Sale in the basement and fill up as many bags as you want with items and only pay $1 per bag. But don’t worry if you aren’t able to make it in on the $1 Per Bag weekends; the Book Sale is ongoing during regular library hours. The most you’ll ever pay for any one item is $1.

These are just a few of the services our library offers! I could go on and on about book discussions, bags of books for teachers, the Summer Reading Program, 1000 Books Before Kindergarten and more, but you should really stop in and see for yourself. If you live in our district and have a valid I.D. showing your current address or a piece of metered mail, you will not be discriminated against getting a free library card of your own. You will not be judged on the items you check out or the questions you ask us; we are here to help you and to serve you.

We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your patronage, and our staff loves to serve you!

Happy Reading, Watching, and Listening! And thank you!

Marvelous Magazines

Posted on by Shelby

The Library has magazines!

While this isn’t anything new, one might not necessarily know that one can check out magazines from the Aurora Public Library District — I’ll admit, magazines aren’t the first materials I think of when I think about the items available to check out. But we do have them, and you can check out up to ten magazines at a time for two weeks, just like a book.

We have all sorts of magazines available, too, from history magazines, DIY magazines, celebrity and entertainment magazines, cooking magazines, science magazines, automobile magazines, animal magazines, magazines for children, health magazines, fiction magazines, news magazines, and so much more! There’s bound to be something to pique your interest!

Magazines are a great way to get the non-reader to read more because they can trick one into reading the articles with their glossy photographs and pages; you might not even realize that you’re reading when you’re casually thumbing through a magazine, just waiting for something to jump out at you. Since the writers of magazine articles have to stick within a strict word count to maintain the layout of the pages, the information is handed to the reader quickly, allowing the reader to jump from article to article as they interest them.

As we are thrown right into the thick of the busy holiday season, magazines are a great way for you to keep reading without consuming much of your time. Not to mention, they’re a great way to look up unique recipes and gifts for get-togethers everyone will be sure to love. You can’t go wrong!

Now you can check out magazines with OverDrive. If you haven’t already, download the OverDrive app to your device as well as the Libby app, which will make reading and checkout so much easier for you. The best part (besides no late fees)? There is no wait time for magazines! As soon as you check out a magazine, it will be available for you to download, even if other patrons have the magazine checked out. You will never have to wait!

Happy Reading!

Baking with APLD

Posted on by Shelby

Listen, now is not the time to go on a diet. The holidays are staring us right in the face and the cold weather is making us layer up, so the time is right to experiment with all kinds of baking. The Aurora Public Library District can help! Instead of going out and buying tons of cookbooks you’ll only flip through once, check out up to ten cookbooks at a time for two weeks (+ two renewals on top of that = a potential month and a half of borrowing a book).

(Since I let you in on that little secret, you now have to bring me a sample of whatever it is you bake.)

The cookbooks begin on the nonfiction shelves with the call numbers 641. If you’re anything like me, you’ll easily get lost in the cookbooks, so it might be more fun for you to browse in person rather than going through our online catalog. But you can certainly do both! Personally, I can’t wait to check out American Cookie by Anne Byrn.

Maybe you’re looking to experiment with baking bread. We have all sorts of books with recipes for bakers of all levels.

 

Or maybe you want to start making more pies, tarts, or brownies. These might be some of the most underrated items of all the baked goods, in my opinion.

 

What about cakes? We have tons of titles on baking and decorating cakes to help you hone your skills. There are tons of new flavors to try too, instead of just plain white or chocolate cake. You can experiment with fillings and various flavor combinations to your heart’s content.

 

And we can’t forget about cookies! There plenty of titles for you to check out about all kinds of cookies, too, whether you’re looking for cake mix cookies, no-bake cookies, Christmas cookies, and more.

 

If you have little ones, we also have lots of books for baking and cooking with children. You’ll love spending time with children, making memories, and helping them learn new skills. Plus, with kids, anything goes, so that means you get to lick the batter, too! (I would have done that normally, but this isn’t about me.)

Maybe you’d rather browse online for recipes. Sign on to one of our public computers with your library card to scour the Internet to your heart’s content. If you need to print a recipe off, it’s only $.10 per black and white page or $1.00 per color page. You can also make copies directly from the books with our public copy machines.

It’s getting colder and the weather might start to get a little dicey, so you might not want to make the trip to the Library. We understand, and you’re in luck because you can also download baking titles digitally straight to your device from the Indiana Digital Download Center with OverDrive. Flip through digital recipe books and screenshot the images so you can have the recipes forever.

I want to help you hibernate this winter surrounded by baked goods and comfort food. So, Happy Reading! (And Eating!)

Awesome Audiobooks

Posted on by Shelby

You probably already know that you can download digital titles right to your smartphone or tablet with OverDrive, but did you know about the extensive audiobook collection available for download on the Indiana Digital Download Center? One of my favorite things to do is to download audiobooks right to my phone so I can listen to them while I’m driving or working around the house; it’s so convenient to have books right on my phone, which I already take with me everywhere anyway.

If you’re new to OverDrive and aren’t sure where to start, please stop by one of the branches in the Aurora Public Library District or give one of them a call so we can walk you through the process. The first thing you’ll need to set up with your account is a pin number, which you might already have. This number is what you type in when you renew your books online. If you aren’t sure if you have a pin — or if you’ve forgotten it — a staff member can set up a new one for you in seconds.

Whatever you’re in the mood for, OverDrive has it. You can search by title, author, genre, new releases, and titles available now. I really enjoy listening to memoirs because they are usually read by the author.

If you’d rather listen to audiobooks on CD, we also have a large collection of those for you to check out as well. At the Aurora branch, the audiobooks on CD have recently moved upstairs into what was formerly the Paperback Room when paperback fiction books were integrated into the regular fiction collection. You can browse the selection by stopping by either the Aurora or Dillsboro branches, or by searching our catalog online. If there’s an audiobook we don’t have that you’d like to listen to, you can always put a request in through Interlibrary Loan.

If you aren’t sure what audiobook to try first, I recommend listening to a book you’ve already read. That way, you know what happens already so if you find yourself zoning out, you won’t be missing anything. Many library patrons read the book and listen to the audiobook simultaneously, which can be helpful for you to be able to flip back and forth if you do miss or forget something. You can be immersed in the story wherever you go when you just can’t put the book down.

It seems like people either really love listening to audiobooks or they really hate it. I think that anyone can love an audiobook if they have an awesome narrator. Even if you don’t think you’ll like listening to someone read to you, or you’ve tried audiobooks before and can’t seem to get into them, I encourage you to try just one more time. Ask any of the staff at the Aurora Public Library District for recommendations! We’d be happy to help!

Happy Listening!

National I Love Yarn Day

Posted on by Shelby

There is a day to celebrate everything, and October 13 is National I Love Yarn Day! What could this day possibly have to do with the library?

If you love to craft, chances are you’ve checked out a how-to or DIY crafting book from us at one time or another. We have plenty of yarn crafting titles available for you to check out from the Library’s physical or digital collections for all levels:

A Beginner’s Book of Knitting and Crocheting by Xenia Ley Parker

Sewing with Yarn: An Introduction to Sewing by Hand by Barbara Carmer Schwartz

One Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn Shop Favorites

Yarn Crafts by Linda Hetzer

The Knitter’s Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn by Clara Parkes

Let’s Knot: A Macramé Book by Donna M. Lightbody

Sock Yarn: One Skein Wonders by Judith Durant

The Knitters’ Book of Socks by Clara Parkes

Knitting for Dummies by Pam Allen

Mastering Color Knitting by Melissa Leapman

Brave New Knits by Julie Turjoman

The Knitter’s Book of Wool by Clara Parkes

60 Crocheted Snowflakes by Barbara Christopher

Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller

Christmas Ornaments to Crochet by Barbara Christopher

Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Luxury Yarn: One Skein Wonders by Judith Durant

And so much more! We also have magazines filled with patterns, designs, and project inspiration that you can check out, too! Discover a new hobby or rekindle an old one this October 13. Someone could always knit me a scarf or a blanket or something; I’m not picky!

Happy Reading!