How to Borrow Library Books on Your Kindle

Did you know you could download books to your Kindle through your public library??? Well *I* didn’t.  But I do now! :-)

There are tons of free books to borrow and it’s really easy to do with a Kindle because Amazon.com uses whispernet to wirelessly sync the books with your Kindle…no cable required.

To find out if your library is participating in the program, you can search the OverDrive website. OverDrive, operates a network that provides e-books to libraries around the world.

Here is a step-by-step guide to checking out a Kindle ebook from your public library based on MY library’s system. Yours should be similar.

1. Go to your library’s website.  Get an account if you don’t already have one.

2. Find the link to the digital library.  My library uses OverDrive and your library most likely does as well.  I find the OverDrive site by scrolling down and clicking on the “Downloads” link.

3. After you click Downloads click the “Browse eBooks”

4. That will take you to the Sign In page.  Enter your library card information and Sign In.

5. From there you can add books to your cart and when you’re finished click on the “Proceed to checkout” link to download ebooks to your Kindle. It will show you the date you checked it out and how long you have until it “expires”. (Usually 2 weeks.)

Hopefully this gives you at least an idea of how the process works. It’s super cinchy….but, like I said, will most likely vary slightly depending on your library’s website.

Hard to argue with FREE BOOKS huh? :-)

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    Is there any public Library's in which you do not have to live in that area to get an account. My public library has a poor selection of e-books.

    • says

      I agree. I live in Gulfport, MS and the Harrison County Public Library has no ebooks program. I’ll be dead by the time they catch up with the technology. But I doubt there are any libraries that don’t require a “resident” membership to borrow their ebooks.

    • denise says

      You can do this with nook too but you can to connect to the computer. There’s instructions on the overdrive site

  2. Danielle says

    I do this and use Pixelofink.com as well. This website offers several free books a day through Amazon. I love my kindle and have a never ending supply of reading material.

  3. Jenny@vegetaraianhatesvegetables says

    Down with Kindle! Boo! I love my books. I love the smell of them when they're old, when they're new. Boo, boo, boo! Okay, that was my speech. Carry on.

    • Candy says

      Why not have the best of both worlds! I have 2o bookcases full of books, and almost 1000 free ones on my kindle. You don’t have to let go of the real ones to have the virtual ones!

  4. Nicole says

    Yay Overdrive! I work at my local public library, and I've made it my mission to tell as many people about Overdrive as possible, because it really is that awesome.

    Overdrive also works with the Nook and all the Apple devices. AND it has audiobooks you can download too. I use it all the time on my iPhone. There's an app that lets you download straight to your iPhone and bypass the computer completely. Seriously, how could you not love free downloads?

  5. sharingthanks says

    I have a Sony Reader and the library lets me borrow e-pub books. They have many different formats as well as audio books for your ipod. I love the no return feature! I find it is good to go to the recently returned section and pick a book that I can get right away.

  6. peggy says

    Thanks for spreading the word. I have been doing this for a while now and I love it. I use a Kindle app for my droidX, and there are a few titles that will not sync to a device with an app, but they should be listed as such. Your library can help if you have problems with this (as I have). You can also use the overdrive app to read the epub books from their site, and listen to the audio books. You can also borrow and loan your own Kindle books. There are directions on Amazon's site.
    Good luck.

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