| Libby | |
| Logo Caption: | Logo of Libby |
| Developer: | OverDrive, Inc. |
| Language: | Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) English Danish French (Canada) German Icelandic Italian Japanese Korean Malay Māori Russian Spanish (Latin America) Swedish Tamil[1] |
| Language Count: | 15 |
In March 2023, OverDrive, Inc. announced it would sunset the legacy OverDrive mobile app on May 1, 2023, having already requested that library systems delete references to the legacy app directing public, academic and corporate libraries and its users to its newer Libby app.[2]
The Libby mobile app requests the user's library card.[3] With the library card, Libby connects to the user's account at the library and provides support in checking out books.[3] The intent is improved service and ease of accessing the library instead of using the library's own website.[3]
A reviewer for Literary Review of Canada praised Libby's management of reading data, including books read and books in queue for reading.[4] A reviewer for Time called Libby one of the best apps of 2018.[5] Popular Mechanics named Libby as one of the best apps of the 2010s.[6]
According to OverDrive CEO Steve Potash, as of 2023, Libby is used by approximately "90% of public libraries in North America".[7] Free library services of the sort supported by Libby are unusual in a time period when almost all such services come from commercial vendors.[8]
Libby Book Awards is a book award contest put on by Libby. The first annual contest was held in 2024 and featured winners for Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult, Audiobook, Debut Author, Diverse Author, Comic Graphic Novel, Memoir & Autobiography, Cookbook, Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Fantasy, Romantasy, Science Fiction, Historial Fiction, and Book Club Pick.[9]