Position Paper #4- Wild Card

 

    Mobile apps include so many categories. There are literally apps for everything. There are apps for fashion, finance, education, agriculture, crafts, reading, etc…. More specifically in the category of reading, I wanted to bring up the app Libby. Libby is an app that I use very often in my personal life. I truly do not like being by myself and really hate silence. If I am by myself, I want to feel like someone is talking to me. I love listening to stories, and Libby really allows me to do this. I absolutely love audiobooks and ebooks! 

Libby is a free app created by OverDrive. OverDrive.inc prides itself on creating apps that provide audiobooks, ebooks, online magazines, and videos to the public. OverDrive has also produced another app named Sora. Sora is a similar app to Libby, but it is only available and targeted primarily towards students. 

Libby is a free library app that gives people full access to audiobooks and ebooks. The only requirement that someone must have to access these ebooks and audiobooks would be a valid county library card.  If for some reason someone does not have a library card, they would follow these instructions which are included on the website's page.

 “If you don't have a library card yet, your library may have instructions or an easy way to get one directly from Libby. At the top of the library's home screen in Libby, tap I Would Like A Card then Visit Library Website or Use My Phone Number and follow the prompts.” 

Once you get this card, you will enter the credentials that it asks for, and then Shazam you have free books at your disposal. Each loan is 3 weeks per ebook, e-magazine, or audiobook. However, if you would like to renew the loan, then you can. The only case where you would be unable to renew your free loan would be in the case of other people waiting in line for said book. Once you rent a book, the books are automatically downloaded. Due to this factor, these books are now able to be read or played in areas where there may be no service or internet access. 

A cool feature that the app allows is the feature of organizing your library. One can organize their library by genre by simply adding tags to their books.

Another cool feature that the app provides is the aspect of account sharing. The Libby app allows you to share an account with multiple people. So, one library card allows multiple people to listen to or read books on the same account. The only thing that the app does not allow you to do is listen to or read the same book at the same time on the same account as someone else. 

This app is incredible and I truly recommend it for everyone! It is available for free on all iOS and Android devices. On the Google Play Store, it currently has 4.7 stars and a little over 5 million downloads. It also has the age recommendation set for teens and above rather than E for everyone. In the Apple Store, it has a rating of 4.8 stars. It is currently ranked #2 in reading right underneath Audible, and right above Amazon Kindle. It also has a total of 2.4 million ratings. However, the age rating in Apple is rated for anyone 4 years of age and above. 

The types of books that Libby has are all books that are included in a regular library. In fact, the books that Libby offers will be different depending on what county library card you are using. Also, you can put multiple library cards on one account. So, this means if you have multiple people who live in different counties with different library cards, everyone would have access to many books located in many areas if they share the same account. 

Libby offers a variety of books in a variety of genres. Some of the genres that Libby has includes; Romance, Fantasy, Nonfiction, Fiction, Biographies, Autobiographies, Magazines, Research articles, Textbooks, historical texts, classics, Young Adults, Contemporary Adult, comedy, etc…. The only con is that because it is a library book, sometimes (especially in extremely popular books), you have to be put on a waitlist until the book becomes available to read. Personally, I have experienced having to be on a book's waitlist for multiple months. A good example of books that are typically long-waiting are books that are popularized through BookTok and Book Youtube. 

    One may ask the question, if Libby is free and uses free county library cards for access, then how do they make a profit? The way that Libby makes a profit is simply through donations and government funding.

    I truly cannot recommend this book app enough. Before, I came across this app that both my mother and I share, we were using a paid subscription app for books. In the subscription app we were using, the app had charged us around 7$ per month for audiobook and ebook reading/listening. In this app, we honestly ran out of books in the genres we liked. Now, since using Libby, we have not found the book amount to be a problem. We have been using this app for a little less than a year, and because the app ties together with your county library, we have not been able to run out of books. I also really love that you can place more than 1 county library card onto one account. Because both my mom and I listen to and/or read many books, we really need variety. The way that we get variety is by placing more than 1 card into the app. Currently, We have the Arkansas Digital Library Consortium card (Montgomery County card) and the Central Arkansas Library System (Saline County card) both on our one Libby Account. 

Honestly, if you are a reader or a listener, try this app! There is literally no harm in trying the app! It is completely free and provides you with so many fun, educational, and entertaining stories!