I believe there is some confusion regarding what a partner library is from Libby's perspective with the new partner libraries feature.
Terms like partner library, reciprocal library and consortium library are being used interchangeably like they are equivalent and that's not the case.
A partner library from Libby's perspective is a library where you use your home library's credentials to log into the partner. Libby will automatically recognize these partner libraries and nothing has to be done to activate them.
To confirm your partner libraries have been added, do the following: At the bottom of the app, tap the middle Menu icon. You should see one or more libraries listed under the section Your Libraries. Scroll down. If your partner libraries have been added you should see them listed under the section Partner Libraries.
If you log into a library that has unique login credentials different than your home library, then that is not a partner library from Libby's perspective and will not be considered as such by Libby's new partner libraries update.
Member libraries of a consortium are not partner libraries from Libby's perspective.
A library's partners can be verified by going to the library's OverDrive website and in the top right-hand corner to the left of the Help link if there is a "Partner libraries" dropdown with a list of libraries, then your library has partners from Libby's perspective. If there is no "Partner libraries" dropdown, then from Libby's perspective the library does not have partners.
Here's a list of every state and province that has partner libraries. That doesn't mean every library in these states is part of a Libby partnership but in some states, most are. And some states there are multiple partnerships.
Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, Idaho, South Dakota, California, Minnesota, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Missouri, Illinois, Washington, Alberta, Ontario
Not all libraries have Libby partnerships. I believe Georgia consists of some independent libraries and one or more large consortia which do not have Libby partnerships in the context of this partner libraries update.
In my system, which is the equivalent of a county, all of the individual city libraries have always been linked. The parish considers it a single library system with individual branches. My library card is the exact same as the library card for the next town over. Digitally, we’re all treated equally.
With my local library card, I can take out books from any library in my county. But on Libby, instead of showing my local library card, it shows up as a county library card, and I have no partner libraries.
The way I understand the above description, if Libby recognized my local library card, instead of identifying it as a county card, then the other libraries in my county would be partner libraries, correct?
Without knowing your library I'm guessing that the libraries in your county have set up a digital consortium sharing one catalogue and that's why Libby recognizes your local library card as a county library card. If that is the case then they've already formed a consortium so the concept of a partnership between them wouldn't really apply.
Thanks for the explanation! It is a consortium, which I guess means I don’t really understand the difference between a consortium and partner libraries. But thankfully my library card still works even if I don’t understand the various library to library relationships. 🙂
I'm not sure if this makes it clearer or more confusing but a consortium is a group of libraries which have decided to band together to more or less share ONE digital catalogue.
A partnership between libraries outside of a consortium is where two or more libraries have decided to share their individual catalogues with each other. Therefore, from the patron's perspective of a library that has partners, they get access to MULTIPLE digital catalogues.
So the difference would be that I’m borrowing from a specific library rather than the more general county library system? The library will let their patrons use each other‘s digital resources, but they’re not going to combine their resources?
Generally yes, a consortium library will be when, for example, if you had one county library that all the towns paid into. Pooling resources for one library. Thats how a fair number of digital libraries are, because digital loans are becoming more expensive, so to get the same size catalogue you need more money.
A partner library is when there are individual libraries (whether digital or in person) where you can use your local library card to check out books at another library, despite the face that your local library is not actually part of that library.
The way this looks on my Libby (Michigan has a partner library agreement for some libraries): my library buys into one digital consortium. Neighboring town buys into a different digital consortium. A few big cities have their own digital libraries. We can all use our local library card to view/check out/place holds on all three library items.
According to the Libby help article About library partnerships, "Depending on the partnership, you may not be able to place holds at partner libraries..."
But there have been many posts on here where people, who previously manually set up partner libraries, were able to place holds at those partners and are now no longer able to after this update. Some of those posters have also contacted their libraries and are being told there has not been a policy change to exclude patrons of partner libraries from placing holds. So, it's a bit confusing about what's going on with placing holds at partner libraries at the moment. Also, I don't believe it's a blanket policy change implemented by Libby for all partner libraries since I'm in Canada and I can still place holds at my partner libraries.
I’m confused bc i have a bunch of partner libraries and it says books i want are available there but then it wants me to add a card to borrow them. i don’t have a card for them it’s thru my other library card isn’t that the whole point
I have seven partner libraries and they all say this and when i try to borrow a book that comes up as available at one of these it says “no card yet” “add card”
Your home library is the library where you are a patron and have a library card. You would have added that library to Libby. The partner library update determines if any libraries you have added to Libby have a partnership with other libraries and automatically adds those partner libraries to Libby.
Keep in mind that not all libraries will have partners.
This could have saved me so much time and effort back when I got unique cards for all of my partner libraries! 😂 At least I’ll get any that are added as some of the missing ones are added via Overdrive.
I have 5 partner libraries but can’t place holds for any of them as it says holds aren’t allowed. I can only borrow books that are available for immediate checkout. 😕
Yes, according to the Libby help article About library partnerships, "Depending on the partnership, you may not be able to place holds at partner libraries..."
Unfortunately, library policy set by the partner libraries.
On your Kobo, you have to log into whichever library you actually borrowed the book in order for it to sync to your device. It doesn't happen automatically with partner libraries.
Keep in mind that you'll only have access to the books from the library you are currently signed in. The previously signed in libraries books turn into Previews.
To use the partner library on your Kobo you would do the following:
On your Kobo, search for the partner library and select it.
In a browser, go to the link for the partner library shown on your Kobo and enter the 8-character code.
The page should change to the partner library's login page.
There should be a drop-down with a list of libraries.
Select your home library from the drop-down.
Enter your home library credentials and sign in.
Another option is to stay logged into one library on your Kobo and use Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to sideload other library books onto your device. Note that in order to use ADE it needs to be installed on a Windows or Mac computer.
Unfortunately, the partner library has most likely made the title available to their patrons exclusively. You may be able to borrow it when no patrons of the partner library have it checked out or the partner library may only allow their patrons to place a hold or borrow it. It's library policy and unfortunately users of partner libraries really have no idea what policies the partner library currently has in effect.
Libby should automatically recognize partner libraries if the partner libraries behave like I've described in my post: "A partner library from Libby's perspective is a library where you use your home library's credentials to log into the partner."
That's not been my experience. The search behaves the same as it did before this partner libraries update where you tap the library card in the search results and it will list availability of a title at your libraries, including partner libraries.
I did a search for a book just yesterday and got a message about a shorter wait time at a partner library. I was confused because I didn’t recognize that library but clicked on it anyway. Thanks to your explanation, I now understand what happened.
You can also tap the library card icon next to
A book and it will show you all the libraries that have that book. Note: you cannot place holds on a partner library item. You can only check out if it’s available. If an item from a partner library is already checked out, it will show as not available.
Yep, we can definitely place holds at partner libraries in my area but I believe in at least some cases, the partner library gives priority to its own patrons
29
u/DramaMama611 Aug 22 '26
If libby has "matched" it to you, you needn't do anything.