How to get ALL ebooks & audiobooks free - even if your library sucks!

Summary

This video offers a guide on legally obtaining free Kindle and audiobooks through library apps like Libby and hoopla, saving viewers money. The speaker shares tips on utilizing local libraries, accessing neighboring library systems, and using a Google Chrome extension to simplify the process. Additionally, for those outside the U.S. or with limited library access, the video suggests purchasing a library card from Orange County, Florida, for extensive book access.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker has read approximately 250 books, mostly for free, using apps like Libby and hoopla.
• 💻 Libby and Overdrive are apps that allow users to borrow ebooks and audiobooks from the library for free.
• 🔍 The speaker demonstrates how to search for and borrow books from the Sacramento Public Library system using these apps.
• 📈 There can be a waitlist for popular books, but holds can be placed, and users are notified when the book becomes available.
• 🔄 Users can manage their holds and loans, including returning books early to help others in the queue.
• 🎧 Audiobooks can be listened to in the browser or through the Libby app, with features like speed adjustment and bookmarks.
• 🔄 Hoopla offers immediate access to books without a waitlist, with a limit of four books per month.
• 🏢 The speaker suggests utilizing reciprocal agreements between library systems to access more books.
• 📍 State laws in the U.S. sometimes allow for library card reciprocity, expanding access to books across the state.
• 🌐 For those outside the U.S. or with limited local library access, purchasing a library card from a system with a vast catalog, like Orange County in Florida, is recommended.
• 🔧 The 'library extension' for Google Chrome simplifies the process of borrowing from multiple library systems by showing availability across all registered libraries.

Q & A

How many books has the speaker read through Kindle and audiobooks?

The speaker has read roughly 250 books through a mixture of both Kindle books and audiobooks.

What is the primary method the speaker uses to get free books?

The speaker uses the apps Libby and hoopla, in combination with their local library, to get free books.

What is the main benefit of using a Kindle according to the speaker?

The main benefit of using a Kindle, as mentioned by the speaker, is the ability to get ebooks from a library sent directly to the Kindle for free.

How does the speaker save money on audiobooks?

The speaker saves money by not purchasing audiobooks from sites like Audible, but instead getting them for free through the library using Libby and hoopla.

What are the four different things the speaker plans to share in the video?

The speaker plans to share how to utilize the local library, how to use neighboring library systems, what to do if the library system doesn't have Libby or hoopla, and how to use a Google Chrome extension to simplify the process.

What is the name of the company that Libby is associated with?

Libby is associated with OverDrive, which is the main name of the company.

How long is the typical loan period for books from the library on Libby or OverDrive?

The typical loan period for books from the library on Libby or OverDrive is three weeks, although some libraries may have a two-week period.

How does the speaker handle the wait time for books that are not immediately available?

The speaker places a hold on the book and moves it back in the queue when they are ready to read it, using the email notifications to manage the timing.

What is the difference between Libby/OverDrive and hoopla?

While Libby/OverDrive may have waitlists for popular books, hoopla allows users to borrow books immediately without a waitlist, with a limit of four books per month.

How can someone gain access to more libraries beyond their local one?

One can gain access to more libraries by taking advantage of reciprocal agreements between library systems, or by purchasing a library card from another library system, such as Orange County in Florida.

What is the name of the Google Chrome extension that helps manage multiple library systems?

The Google Chrome extension that helps manage multiple library systems is called the 'library extension'.

How does the library extension work to simplify the book borrowing process?

The library extension allows users to input multiple library systems they are members of and quickly shows which libraries have the desired book available, streamlining the borrowing process.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Leveraging Libraries for Free Books and Audiobooks

The speaker expresses gratitude to patrons and shares a method for legally obtaining books and audiobooks for free through apps like Libby and hoopla, which are associated with local libraries. The process involves using the library's digital services to borrow Kindle books and audiobooks without any cost. The speaker also mentions lesser-known benefits of Kindle and plans to share tips on utilizing these apps, accessing more books through neighboring library systems, and addressing issues for those who may not have access to these services or live outside the United States.

05:02

🔍 How to Use Libby and Hoopla for Borrowing Books

This paragraph explains how to use the Libby app, which is associated with Overdrive, to search for and borrow ebooks and audiobooks. The process includes placing a hold on books that are not immediately available, with the app notifying users when the book is ready for download. The speaker discusses the availability of the same audiobooks for free through Libby that would otherwise cost money on platforms like Audible. The paragraph also covers how to return borrowed books early and the convenience of listening to audiobooks through the Libby app or browser.

10:03

🎉 Expanding Access to Books Through Multiple Library Systems

The speaker provides strategies for expanding access to books beyond one's local library by utilizing reciprocal agreements between library systems, which allow sharing of catalogs. They suggest contacting nearby libraries to inquire about access and mention that many states in the U.S. have laws allowing reciprocity across library systems. The speaker also shares their personal experience of obtaining multiple library cards across California, significantly increasing their access to books.

🌐 Solving the Problem of Juggling Multiple Library Memberships

The final paragraph introduces a solution for managing multiple library memberships, which can be cumbersome. The speaker recommends a Google Chrome extension called 'library extension' that simplifies the process of checking book availability across different library systems. The extension allows users to input their library memberships and quickly see which libraries have the desired book available, streamlining the borrowing process. The speaker also invites viewers to ask questions in the comments or join their Discord channel for live discussions and expresses gratitude to patrons, especially those in the ascendant and librarian tiers.

Keywords

💡Patrons

Patrons in this context refer to supporters who financially contribute to the creator's work, often in exchange for exclusive content or recognition. In the video, the speaker expresses gratitude to their patrons for their continued support, highlighting the importance of this community in sustaining their content creation.

💡Kindle

Kindle is a brand of e-readers developed and marketed by Amazon. It is also used to refer to the e-books that can be read on these devices. The video discusses how viewers can access Kindle e-books from libraries for free, emphasizing the cost-saving aspect of using this technology in conjunction with library services.

💡Audiobooks

Audiobooks are recordings of text being read aloud, allowing listeners to enjoy books in an auditory format. The script mentions audiobooks as an alternative to traditional reading, and the speaker shares how they can be obtained for free through library apps instead of purchasing them from commercial platforms like Audible.

💡Libby

Libby is a digital library app that allows users to borrow e-books and audiobooks from their local library using their library card. The video explains how to use Libby to access free books and audiobooks, showcasing it as a legal and cost-effective way to enjoy reading materials.

💡Hoopla

Hoopla is another digital service that provides access to a wide range of media, including e-books and audiobooks, through local library systems. The script describes how Hoopla can be used when a desired book is not available on Libby, offering an alternative source for accessing free reading materials.

💡Overdrive

OverDrive is a digital distribution service for e-books, audiobooks, and other digital media that operates alongside libraries. The video script refers to OverDrive as the company behind Libby, indicating that the service is integral to accessing library e-books and audiobooks.

💡Reciprocal Agreements

Reciprocal agreements in the context of libraries allow users from one library system to access resources from another system. The video discusses how these agreements can significantly expand the range of books available to users by enabling access to neighboring library systems' catalogs.

💡State Laws

State laws, as mentioned in the script, can mandate reciprocity between library systems within a state, allowing residents to access resources from any library within the state by showing up in person. This is particularly relevant in the video's discussion on expanding access to library resources beyond one's local system.

💡Library Extension

The Library Extension is a Google Chrome extension that simplifies the process of searching for and borrowing books across multiple library systems. The video highlights its utility in managing memberships with various libraries and quickly identifying which systems have the desired book available.

💡Goodreads

Goodreads is a social platform for book recommendations and reviews. In the script, the speaker uses Goodreads to demonstrate how the Library Extension can streamline the process of finding and borrowing e-books from different library systems, showcasing its practical application in a real-world scenario.

💡Ascendant Tier and Librarian Tier Patrons

These terms refer to different levels of patronage or support within the creator's community, likely offering varying degrees of benefits or recognition. The video script includes a special shout out to these higher-tier patrons, indicating a tiered system of support that may provide additional rewards or acknowledgment.

Highlights

The speaker has read 250 books using Kindle and audiobooks, paying for only about 10, saving thousands of dollars.

The method involves using the apps Libby and hoopla, which are legal ways to access free books.

One can get ebooks and audiobooks from the library sent directly to a Kindle for free.

Sites like audible.com are not necessary when the same audiobooks can be obtained for free.

The video will show how to use local libraries and neighboring library systems to access more books.

It will also cover what to do if your library system lacks Libby or hoopla, or if you live outside the U.S.

A Google Chrome extension will be introduced to simplify the borrowing process from multiple libraries.

The Overdrive company's Libby app is used for borrowing audiobooks and ebooks.

Books can be placed on hold, and the wait time can be managed by moving back in the queue.

Holding a book can be done instantly with Libby, and the book is sent directly to the Kindle.

Returned books free up the next copy for others in the waitlist, promoting a good community practice.

Audiobooks can be listened to in the browser or through the Libby app, with features like speed adjustment.

Hoopla can be used as an alternative when Overdrive books are not available, with no waitlist.

Libraries often have reciprocal agreements allowing access to multiple library systems.

Some states in the U.S. allow reciprocity across all library systems by showing up in person.

For those without access to Libby or hoopla, purchasing a library card from a different system can be cost-effective.

The Orange County library system in Florida offers a card for $125/year with a vast catalog accessible worldwide.

The Library Extension for Google Chrome simplifies borrowing from multiple library systems by showing availability.

The video concludes with an invitation to join the speaker's Discord Channel for further discussions and support.

Transcripts

want to give a shout out to all of my

patrons thank you so much for all of the

continued support hey everybody over the

years I've read roughly 250 books

through a mixture of both Kindle books

and audiobooks and I've only paid for

about 10 of them saving me literally

thousands of dollars so today I'm going

to tell you how I do this fully legally

using a combination of the apps Libby

and hoopla and I'm going to tell you how

you can do this exact same thing and

share some tips with you that even if

you use these that you probably have not

heard before so while many people

already know a lot of the benefits of

using a Kindle by far the greatest

benefit and the least well-known benefit

is the fact that you can get ebooks from

a library sent directly to your Kindle

for free and you can use this method to

do audiobooks as well and while I love

sites like audible.com I mean and heck

they advertise on my channel you would

be foolish to spend money on audiobooks

from audible when you can get these

exact same audio books for free so in

this video I'm going to share with you

four different things so first is I'm

going to show you how how I utilize my

local library to get these books and how

you can do the same thing at yours

second I'm going to show you how to use

neighboring Library systems to get

access to even more books third I'm

going to show you what to do if your

library system either doesn't have Libby

or hoopla it has a really weak

collection of books or if you happen to

live outside of the United States and

you want access to everything that I'm

talking about and fourth I'm going to

show you how to use a super convenient

Google Chrome extension that very few

people know about that'll make this

whole process a whole lot easier

all right so now let's learn how to use

these two main apps uh first starting

with Libby or overdrive now overdrive is

the main name of the company

um but Libby is their app so you're

going to want to get the app

um if you're ever going to want to

listen to audiobooks but if you if you

don't ever listen to audiobooks and you

just want to do ebooks you can use the

app but I'm going to show this to you on

desktop but it's it's the same exact

process for using on your phone I have

it on my phone but let's go through the

desktop version here so every overdrive

or Libby account is going to look the

same except it's going to have a

different title up top I'm looking at

the Sacramento Public Library system

which is one of the library systems that

I have access to so you're going to

search for a book let's look for the way

of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and right

away when I pull this up I'm going to

see two different options here I'm going

to see that an audiobook is available

and an e-book is available let's start

with the ebook

so for the ebook I want to look at one

thing right off the bat I want to see

that it's available in Kindle it is

great now let's look at the status of

this there are zero of eight copies

available that means um just like a

regular Library they have a certain

number of copies that they can loan out

for three weeks at a time some libraries

are two weeks most of them are three

weeks so

um none of them are available and the

wait time right now is 13 weeks

if I look at the details here it's

saying 13 weeks because there's eight

copies available there's 48 people

waiting in line which means that there

are six people waiting per copy

um and they have some formula to figure

out what that means but it will never

take 13 weeks to get this book why

because when you place a hold on a book

which I'll do right now for an example

um I'm on a hold I am number 49 on eight

copies and if I go to my account and

look at my holds I can see that I have

it here along with a number of other

books uh some of these are my wife's

books uh don't judge me but The Witcher

is most certainly mine so on this this

is going to slowly tick down as I go

look at it but when a a lot of people

are going to drop off this because they

might not want it so it's going to go

faster than the 12 weeks the 12 weeks is

the worst case scenario um and I've

never had it go that long

um that it says it's going to take but

another thing a really cool thing that's

going to happen is when this book is

available I'm going to get an email that

says your book is available you have

three days to grab it and send it to

your Kindle and the you're going to get

the option then to say do I want it now

or do I want to go further back in the

line a little bit and how long do you

want to wait sometimes if I'm not ready

for it I'll say go back a week and

essentially after one week the next copy

that's available will be given to you

and you can keep pushing this back as

long as you want so this is a strategy

that I often use is I will go put a hold

on tons and tons of books that I want to

read and I'll just keep moving them back

and back and back knowing that then I'll

get them when I want to read them but

lots of other people do this too and

every time you move back another person

gets it so this 12 weeks will rapidly go

quicker than you think it will go so

that's how to place a hold on a book

um but now let's look at a book that

maybe that we kind of want to read right

now let's look at

I don't know let's look at mistborn

um let's look at the Lost metal

uh the Lost metal has six of 12 copies

available so I'm gonna and it's

available on Kindle over here I'm gonna

go ahead and borrow this it's going to

say borrow for 21 days or less I'm gonna

go 21 days

and then I'm going to say read now with

Kindle and as soon as I click that

button it's going to pop me over to my

Amazon account and I will be able to

send it to my Kindle and within about 10

seconds it will show up directly on my

Kindle it's that easy now when I'm done

with the book because I don't want to

read this book because I don't like this

book and I've already read it I will go

to my loans I will see that it is here

and I can return it early

return

boom and it's done uh it's that easy now

you want to return it to be a Good

Samaritan because then the people

waiting behind you in line if there's a

wait list will then get that email

saying the book is ready

um now let's look at how to do an

audiobook so let's go to the way of

Kings again and check out the audiobook

version of that so audiobook for the way

of Kings it's not available there's a 10

week hold so I could place a hold

um or I could let's look at an example

for a book that I currently have so

under loans there are currently two

audiobooks that are in my account

available to listen to right now you

have a couple options you can listen to

it in your browser you just pop it right

open and boom I can listen to it it'll

save your place it'll sync up with the

Libby app on your phone

um or just pull out your phone and you

can listen to it just like you would be

listening to audible.com it's like the

exact same interface it's just as good

you can speed up the pace over here to

1.5 speed which is what I normally

listen to

um but do whatever you want you can

bookmark it right here you can look at

your bookmarks here it's got everything

you would ever need

um but let's say let's go back to that

wave King's example let's say I don't

want to wait the 10 weeks what is my

options well that's where hoopla comes

in handy so this is what hoopla looks

like on most Library accounts they will

give you access to both hoopla and

Overdrive

or Libby I use those interchangeably so

let's look up and see if

um let's look up that mistborn example

um let's look up a mistborn book because

if I look over here and look up mistborn

um and let's say I wanted to read the

final Empire the final Empire isn't

available it's a 12-week hold well let

me go over to hoopla and type in the

final Empire and the beautiful thing

about hoopla is they don't have a wait

list they have a rule that you can only

get four books a month

um but you just get them right away boom

borrow now I don't want to use one of my

four right now but if I hit borrow title

I could have it immediately

um and so I always check with overdrive

first but if it's not there let me go

check on hoopla and see if it's there

and oftentimes it is um so you can

interchangeably use these two systems

the Hoopla app on your phone works just

like the other one just like audible it

works beautifully so that's how to work

these systems and please let me know if

you have any questions

so now let's talk about how to get

access to even more libraries than just

your local one so in many places there

are things called reciprocal agreements

where between Library systems they can

share a catalog for you so where I live

not only do I get access to my local

library but I also get access to the

three Library System nearest to me just

by signing up online which gives me

access to like four times the amount of

books or three times I'm not very good

at math so what I would do if I were you

is I would call the nearby library

systems just call them up on the phone

talk to any librarian and tell them

where you live and ask if you can get

access to the layer library system as

well or you can call your own library

and ask them what system they have

reciprocal agreements for but in my

experience it's a lot better to call the

individual systems you'll get a lot

better answers from them so aside from

this in America many states also have

state laws that allow reciprocity

between all Library systems across their

entire State as long as you show up in

person so I happen to live in California

where this law exists so whenever I go

to a new city like if I'm on a trip or

just driving through for whatever reason

I always make a point to stop off the

library I show my California ID and I

get a new card and now I've done this

for about 10 different Library systems

across the state which means that at

this point I get pretty much any book

that I want whenever I want unless it's

like hyper indie or it's like just come

out but even the ones that just come out

I still have pretty good track record on

getting those books all right now let's

talk about what to do if your local

library either does not have Libby or

hoopla it has like a weak collection of

books or you happen to live outside of

the United States and want access to the

things that I'm talking about because I

think a lot of other countries don't get

this access that I've gone over in this

video but I have a solution for you so

some libraries allow you to purchase a

card for one year you even if you don't

live there now they do cost money but

the savings is enormous so I've done a

ton of research into this and I found

that by far the best library to buy a

card from that has an enormous catalog

of books is the library system in Orange

County in Florida and it costs 125

dollars per year and while that may seem

like a lot of money you only need to

read about 10 books a year to make this

worthwhile so I'm going to leave a link

down in the description where you can

buy this card and the beautiful thing

about the Orange County system in

Florida not the Orange County system in

California you got to look at the

Florida one but they also allow this for

international

residents as well so it doesn't matter

where you live in the world if you pay

125 dollars per year you can get access

to pretty much any book that exists now

there might be a wait list on some of

these which is totally fine if you've

done the tips that I talked to you about

before but that's how you do it

all right so you have signed up for your

library system and let's pretend that

you've done my trick and you've signed

up for a bunch of Library systems and

now you have a bunch of cards and it

would be annoying to try to juggle all

these cards and figure out which library

has your book and take a lot of clicking

here is the power user way to solve this

problem and it is by using this cool

extension called the library extension

just type in library extension Chrome

pick this bad boy up when you get it

you're going to open it up and it will

show you you can click in all the

different what country you're in what

state you're in type in what library

system you're looking for and add it

into your system so I have a bunch of

libraries plugged into here that I'm a

member of I'm a member of a lot more

than this but I use my laptop for it and

I'm using my desktop right now so let's

go to Goodreads this also works on

amazon.com but I'm a big fan of

Goodreads so let's look up a book let's

look up Grace of Kings by Ken Lou

and when you pop open a book it's going

to pop over this extension on the right

side of the screen and it's going to

show you so in the Sacramento Public

Library System there are none available

on audiobook but look there's a green

there is one available for ebook but in

all these others there's not so it's

going to quickly go through all of the

different Library systems that you're a

member of and just quickly summarize

which ones is available so I can just

quickly hit borrow it'll pop open boom

borrow it from this Library System it's

mine it's that easy it's a beautiful

beautifully run little system and it's a

must must have if you have more than one

library system on your account so thank

you so much for watching this video I

hope you've learned something new here

if you have any technical questions

about this feel free to mention them in

the comments and I'll try to answer or

better yet come visit my Discord Channel

and I can talk to you live about it I

have a link down always in the

description and I would love to have you

so that's it for me thank you so much

for watching and as always happy reading

to you thanks again to all my patrons

with a special shout out to my ascendant

tier and librarian tier patrons Anna G

Ben Brian CJ Darren Jonathan my book is

lit Nathan T Nev's book Channel Ron

Reich Russell Ryan L Anna Andra Angelo

Ben Blair Brock Evan fanaxan Jamie Jeff

Pixlr Maria Michael Sugarman Skye and

Zion