Your library card can cover audiobooks, ebooks, movie streaming, and museum passes at no cost. Before you pay for another subscription, check your library’s website for the apps and pass programs it offers, and get a card at every library system you qualify for. Then cancel the paid plan your cards already cover.
Libby, OverDrive’s free app, carries library ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines with no subscription and no late fees. Kanopy and Hoopla stream movies, and Hoopla adds TV shows and music.
Some libraries also hand out free passes to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal that last one to three days. Others lend museum passes, state park passes, and Wi-Fi hotspots. Seattle Public Library lets each cardholder reserve one free museum pass a month.
What you get depends on which library issued your card. Each system picks its own services and sets its own limits, so a card from the next county over can unlock an app yours doesn’t carry. Kanopy lets you add one card per library, and each library you add brings its own monthly tickets.
Eligibility can reach well past city limits. Brooklyn Public Library gives free cards to anyone who lives, works, or studies in New York state, and Los Angeles Public Library gives them to any California resident. Texas and Pennsylvania also run statewide programs that let cardholders borrow from other libraries in the state.
Before your next subscription renewal, work through this list.
- Find the digital or eResources page on your library’s website, and note every app and pass program it lists.
- Check which other systems will give you a card, starting with where you work or go to school.
- Add every card to Libby and Kanopy, since both apps take more than one library.
Expect limits. Publishers often require each digital copy to go to one reader at a time, so popular Libby titles carry waitlists. Kanopy’s tickets reset on the first of the month and don’t carry over, and Hoopla caps monthly borrows at a number your library sets.
If your household pays for an audiobook plan and two streaming services, cancel the audiobook plan first, since Libby and Hoopla both lend audiobooks. Place holds on your next few titles before you cancel, so the queue is already moving when the paid plan ends.
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