Hi everyone!

We wanted to take the time to give an update on our 2020 tour and share what our team has been up to since we returned to Cleveland in March. Like many others around the world, here in Cleveland, we have been staying safe at home. We hoped to be back out on the road delighting patrons and students across the United States and Canada as soon as we could, but as time has gone on, we thought it would be best to cancel all of our Digital Bookmobile events through the end of September.

The Digital Bookmobile team’s job is entirely made up of planning and executing Digital Bookmobile events so with the tour’s cancellation, we have temporarily joined our incredible Tech Support team to assist them as we welcome many new readers to Libby, OverDrive, and Sora during the many library and school closures. While we truly miss seeing patrons face-to-face, helping our Tech Support team has given us the opportunity to continue helping patrons get started with the Libby app. We have learned so many new things since we have joined the Tech Support team that we are excited to take with us when we are able to start the tour back up again.

In addition to assisting our friends in Technical Support, our team has been hard at work planning alternative events for the library partners that had planned for Digital Bookmobile visits at their library between our initial cancellation at the end of March to the new cancellations through the end of September. On Wednesday, we partnered with Atlanta-Fulton County Library to test a series of virtual trainings.

As part of these virtual trainings, Joe and I will be hosting “Getting Started with Libby” sessions where we’ll assist new users with signing in, borrowing books, placing holds, tagging titles, and more. We will also be hosting a number of Experienced User sessions for anyone that currently uses Libby, but would like the opportunity to find out tips and tricks or ask any questions they may have.

We are very excited to continue these virtual trainings with the rest of our partners that had a Digital Bookmobile event cancelled, so if we had planned to come to your library this year, be on the lookout for messaging from your library on how to sign up!

I’ll never forget the period of time my family obsessed over The Sims. I suffered for hours sitting through my siblings painstakingly building and decorating their houses. Their obsession lasted well over a year, and I truly thought I would die of boredom, right along with their characters who were dying of starvation. So, when Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out last month and my sister, Maranda spent every conversation we had discussing how she was building her island, all I thought was, “Great, here we go again.”

It wasn’t until our mom joined the Animal Crossing community and spent the better part of a week begging me to join that I finally relented (I blame quarantine for my actions). The addiction came swiftly, and soon I was staying up way past my bedtime, digging up trees and scouring the beach for sharks. A few days into the vortex, I was able to travel to Maranda’s island, where she enlightened me on how to turn my drab island into a book lovers paradise. Little did she know that if she led with that, I would have started playing a month ago.

Here are five things to every bibliophile should know when playing Animal Crossing.

You can create your own dream library.

If you long for floor to ceiling bookshelves that cover every inch of the wall but live in a tiny apartment with just enough room for a trusty crate of books, dig out your blueprints and build yourself that at-home library that you’ve always dreamed of on your island. With a few DIY recipes, you can build bookshelves. Once you have your walls covered with the latest best-sellers, spend some of your hard-earned bells on a comfy reading chair. Your virtual at-home library might not be real, but you will feel just as excited when it finally comes together (well, almost).

You can turn your favorite book jacket covers into wall art.

Once you build your amazing library, you will need to add a little flair. This website lets you upload any photo you’d like. It then generates a QR code to scan using The Nintendo Switch Online app. Maranda’s library was filled with prints of jacket covers like, Le Petit Prince, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and The Name of the Wind. It was awesome! Just be careful if you have a list of favorite books as long as ours, you might forget to sleep that day.

You can run around your island dressed as your favorite literary character.

If you fancy yourself a designer, you can use the Custom Designs app on your Nook phone to channel your inner Tim Gunn and create ready to wear outfits. From Harry Potter’s cloak to Gandalf the Grey’s hat, the only limitation to what you can design is your imagination.

Don’t have a creative bone in your body? Don’t sweat it. There are plenty of custom designs in the kiosk at Able Sister’s clothing store. Players all over the world can upload their designs into the database, which are free to obtain. To use the custom design portal, you need a Nintendo online subscription, but the subscription allows you to access plenty of content that it’s worth the price. I also recommend searching Reddit and other online communities to find custom design clothing.

Put a Little Free Library on your island.

Okay, so it’s not actually functional, and truly just there for the aesthetic, but who could resist? Despite the inability to grab a book from your island’s Little Free Library yourself, you can pretend your neighbors are totally using it when you aren’t looking. If they aren’t, you can just swat at them with your bug net to make them move away. If you don’t like books, you can get off the island, buddy!

You can spread the word about Libby!

Even though this is a virtual world, real friends can come to your island to pick fruit, fish, catch bugs, and hear about your favorite one tap reading app! With the same website I mentioned using to convert jacket covers, you can upload an image of Libby to post in your community as well! If your friends haven’t met our favorite librarian yet, they will be excited to learn that there is 24/7 access to free ebooks and audiobooks from their local library when they finally decide the hop off their Nintendo Switch at 4 am.

Do you know any other fun ways to show off your love of books in Animal Crossing? Head over to our Instagram (@digitalbookmobile) and let me know in a comment!

Traveling with the Digital Bookmobile has given me the opportunity to meet some pretty amazing people all over the country. No matter where I am, I often hear stories from library patrons about the bookmobiles their small towns had when they were kids. This past February, I was lucky enough to meet Karen (Stav) Evans while visiting the Vista Branch of the San Diego County Library. Karen didn’t simply have memories of a bus full of books traveling to her small town, but memories of her mother, Margaret Anderson Stav Roberts, driving that bus full of books in North Dakota in the 1950s. Karen’s story of Margaret stuck with me long after the Digital Bookmobile left California, so in celebration of National Bookmobile Day, I reached out to her recently to hear more about Margaret’s amazing life.

Throughout my travels, I have gotten to meet quite a few bookmobile drivers, most with pretty funny stories of misadventure. After all, many bookmobiles are a size that would turn most people away at the thought of driving such a thing. “I am astonished that my reasonably petite mother was brave enough to drive that “monster” on narrow farm roads, many unpaved or graveled, as well as on snowy highways or following snowplows into farm yards – and then needing to turn around,” Karen remembered. “The most challenging part of her ‘bookmobiling’ was definitely dealing with the fearsome winter weather and very strong winter winds that blew straight across Canada from the Arctic. North Dakota blizzards are no picnic, but that rarely stopped her!”

Margaret started driving the bookmobile for a trial program to see if it was practical for reaching isolated farms and ranches in western North Dakota after receiving her library certificate. “Many years [after Margaret drove the bookmobile] at a class reunion, one of the participants told me how much the bookmobile stopping at their isolated ranch was such an exciting and welcome event for her family. There was no television until the very late 50s or later for the farms and ranches far from towns. The bookmobile was in many ways a lifeline for those folks,” Karen said.

Driving the bookmobile was only one of the many ways Margaret found ways to help those that needed it most: “[…] during WWII in Bremerton, Washington, she was very active with the United Service Organizations (USO) and war support through our church. […] Through her association with American Associate of University Women (AAUW), P.E.O. International, and various other local groups, she was active in raising funds for scholarships and educational grants. Lifelong learning was definitely a theme of her life,” said Karen. “I’m not sure if [Margaret] thought of her life and career as necessarily ‘being in service to others’. She did love people and social interaction and was an academic when few women were college educated. Putting those things together were natural to being an educator.”

Margaret’s love of reading was apparent throughout her entire life. When I asked Karen if she associated any one book with her mom, she said, “[She] must have read her way through hundreds, if not thousands of books of all kinds. She loved history, biography, art, poetry, etc. The one book I do recall her being captivated by was “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak. She took fiendish delight in shocking her small town friends by saying she was ‘going to bed’ with Dr. Zhivago at night. Have I mentioned she had a unique sense of humor?!”

It’s no surprise Margaret’s children inherited her love of books, “We were read to from infancy and books were always part of the gifts we received for birthdays and Christmas. I will never forget the dark and cold winter afternoon mother brought me “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can close my eyes today and be there again! That series was my favorite for the next several years,” Karen remembered.

When I first met Karen, I was excited most by the opportunity to hear more about Margaret’s adventures on the bookmobile. While those anecdotes did not disappoint, by the end of our time together, I was most taken with the sheer amount of love and respect Karen was able to express through her stories of her mom’s incredible life, “Margaret raised four children by herself, in a time and place where her intellect and skills were unappreciated, undervalued, and dismissed due to circumstances beyond her control. She always stood up for herself and did whatever and more needed to be done to educate and care for her children.”

In our last blog, we featured the many wonderful ways that libraries are assisting their patrons during COVID-19 closures, but libraries aren’t the only institutions stepping up for their own. As schools continue to cancel classes for longer periods of time, they are supporting their students in some amazing ways.

Educators have recently shifted into overdrive (pun intended) to ensure the success of students and are striving to provide as much normalcy and structure as they can beyond the walls of their campuses. Most schools have implemented remote learning by supplying technology for students, adjusting class schedules, and providing guides or counseling for parents to support their children in their learning.

Among the easiest ways schools have connected their students to the classroom from home is by offering 24/7 access to their collection of ebooks and audiobooks through OverDrive’s Sora app. Students from our partnering schools are able to access thousands of books to choose from, and many schools are taking advantage of our no cost books for remote learners, which includes 200+ premium simultaneous use titles to supplement their school’s digital library.

School librarians have done an amazing job promoting their digital collections to students using our School’s Closed Kit and Always Available Classics Kit. Both kits can be found on OverDrive’s Resource Center, and include digital graphics that can be shared on social media to reach students using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to stay informed on school updates.

Sora isn’t the only way our school partners are engaging their student readers. Atascocita Middle School took their Lunch and Lit Book Club virtual, allowing students to discuss their latest book club pick over Zoom. April is School Library Month, and Pitt County Schools aren’t letting their school’s closure stop them from celebrating! For the entire month of April, they will be hosting virtual read-alongs for students at home to enjoy.

Technology is playing a huge role in how schools are bringing together students after going remote. High school students from Cobb County School District coordinated virtual choir and band performances. Northwood High School is also utilizing technology as a way to unify their students. By tagging their social media posts with their chosen hashtag, students were able to participate in Spirit Week from their homes.

Educators aren’t limiting their efforts to their students either. Schools like Alpine School District are donating masks and gloves to local fire departments and hospitals, and Aurora Public Schools are just one of many school districts that have set up free meal distribution for children in their communities. It’s easy to take teachers, media specialists, and administrative staff for granted, but it’s times like these that their love and compassion is undeniable.

As an update to our 2020 tour, we have extended our time off the road until May 17th. We will continue to make updates to our tour as time goes on, but know that we are looking forward to getting back out on the road as soon as we can.

Recently an unprecedented amount of libraries started closing their doors to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. In typical library fashion, dedicated library workers haven’t taken their temporary closures lying down. Not only are most, if not all, libraries extending lending periods and suspending late fees on borrowed materials, they are continuing to serve their communities in some very impressive ways. We encourage everyone to look into what resources your local library is providing at a time when you may need them most.

While their doors are closed, check out your local library’s selection of digital materials available 24/7. Our platforms, OverDrive and Libby, provide ebooks, audiobooks, movies, and magazines instantly to smart devices. From the newest adult bestsellers to juvenile classics, there is something for everyone to enjoy. To get started, all you need is a library card.

Couldn’t get a library card before the library closed its doors? Find out if your library offers an Instant Digital Card, a temporary library card that is linked to your phone number, which allows you access to your library’s digital collection!

While delighting readers is the first thing people think of when they think of the library, providing reading materials is just the first of the many ways libraries are connecting their communities to information. In addition to lending platforms, libraries offer a variety of educational content that can be used from the comfort of home. Online tutoring, virtual courses from industry leaders, online language-learning, and genealogy databases are just some of the digital resources I’ve seen offered by our library partners.

Although these resources are always available, some libraries are relying solely on their digital resources during this time. Others have adapted their programming or found creative ways to help members of their community that need it most.

Some libraries like Fulton County Library in Georgia, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library in Florida, Danbury Library in Connecticut, York County Public Library in Virginia are bringing the library’s Storytime programs into the homes of their patrons every weekday while the closures are in effect.

Stratford Library in Connecticut isn’t just stopping at virtual Storytime. Their kid’s librarian is hosting many library programs via the video conferencing platform, Zoom. Kids can join a video chat to compete in spelling bees, craft time, or show off their furry friends at a virtual pet party. Sign me up!

While the situation involving COVID-19 continues to evolve and schools and businesses require people to stay home, some libraries are taking steps to ensure everyone in their community have essential resources available to them. Libraries like Darby Free Library in Pennsylvania are giving out free packed lunches to children while schools are closed. San Francisco Public Library made an announcement that they will be offering support to low-income families’ childcare needs during this time. Many others are providing a list of resources throughout the community that families can take advantage.

It’s in moments like these that we are so happy to have the partnerships that we do with libraries. Even in the most uncertain circumstances, libraries remain integral to the lives of so many people. We are proud to support these amazing institutions as they continue to support the communities they serve.

In an update last Thursday, we announced that the Digital Bookmobile 2020 Tour will be suspended until April 16th, pending any further developments. Although canceling an event is never an easy decision, it is ultimately what is best for our library and school partners, our visitors, and the team. We are looking forward to getting back out on tour once this is all past us. Until then, we will be washing our hands regularly and supporting our local libraries!

When you have a job that requires you to travel North America ten months out of the year, people tend to ask a lot of questions about your nomad lifestyle. Here are the most common questions I get about being the Digital Book Specialist with the Digital Bookmobile.

How did you find out about this job?
I had used OverDrive for a few years, so I had known about the company long before I knew that my position even existed. Soon after I moved to Cleveland, my partner started working for OverDrive as a Technical Support Specialist. After he traveled with the bookmobile, he told me about the position. Through him and other OverDrive employees we had met along the way, I was able to keep an eye on when the position came available. I studied my butt off during the interview process, and I was lucky enough to be chosen to take over when the former Digital Book Specialist, Lauren, transferred to the training team.

Do you sleep in the Digital Bookmobile?
Thankfully, no. Ira, our driver, does have living quarters on the bookmobile. We always joke that he gets the short end of the stick in our traveling partnership. He is pretty limited in where he can take the bookmobile due to its size. Typically, he is stuck in truck stops fairly far away from our event sites. Although at the end of our last season, he did discover the beauty of RV parks. I, on the other hand, have a rental car that I can take just about anywhere, have access to a free shower whenever I want, and sleep in luxurious hotel beds.

Where is the best place you’ve traveled with the Digital Bookmobile so far?
This is an extremely hard question to answer! I’ve gotten to travel to some pretty amazing places and there are so many factors that go into how much I enjoy my time in each area. While the bookmobile was in Pittsburgh, I had one visitor secretly setup his wife’s device so that he could surprise her when he got home. Not only did he save our event date in his calendar, he also brought a list of books to borrow that he knew she had been wanting to read. I never thought in a million years that I would walk out of Pittsburgh with new relationship goals!

If I base my choice off of food, I’d have to go with Portland, OR. Every single meal I had in Portland was absolute perfection. The coolest hotel experience I’ve had was in Boston, MA, where I stayed in the tiniest hotel room ever (I’m slightly obsessed with the tiny house movement) with a great view of downtown. While I was in Seattle, WA, I was able to witness the salmon migration, which was easily one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. I could go on and on but I’ll stop there before things get out of hand!

What’s the best meal you’ve eaten out on the road?
Like I said, Portland takes the cake for food. When the Digital Bookmobile took part in the Portland Book Festival, two OverDrive team members came out to assist. The night before the festival, we ate at this restaurant that served shared plates (unbeknownst to us). We all ordered a different steak dish and, to our surprise, each dish came out individually for us all to share. I am a die hard steak fan, so this was a dream come true. 10/10, would go back again.

Do you ever miss home?
Of course! I miss home frequently when I’m out on the road. I miss my fiance, my cats, my bed, and although I eat a lot of really delicious food out on the road, I miss cooking my own meals. However, when I’m home, I miss traveling with the Digital Bookmobile!

Do you ever get lonely?
You bet. I’m lucky enough to have another OverDrive team member with me for about 60% of the time I’m out on the road, but I spend plenty of time on my own. It took a while to get used to eating dinner alone at the bar at whatever restaurant I chose that night, but now it feels pretty normal. There are a few perks of being alone while I’m in a new place. I don’t have to factor in anyone else’s opinions on how to spend my day and I can make a dent in my Libby wish list while I eat!

What do you do when you travel somewhere boring?
Well, even the smallest towns have interesting things to see, so I don’t think I would call anywhere I go “boring.” I research everywhere we travel pretty extensively before the tour starts, and so far, I have been able to find at least one thing to do in each place I’ve gone. Occasionally I do arrive in a new place after most things have closed and leave early in the morning for our next event. When that’s the case, I find somewhere quiet to read.

Do you meet a lot of interesting people?
Every single day. Between our library partners, Digital Bookmobile visitors, the people that I sit next to on planes, buses, and restaurant bars, I meet some pretty amazing people. It’s one of my favorite things about my job.

After three months of cold weather in Cleveland, I couldn’t have been more excited to fly out to sunny California to start the 2020 tour. This year, we are taking things up a notch! Our 2020 tour is the biggest tour yet with 130 stops in 27 states and 4 Canadian provinces.

At our events, patrons will get all kinds of goodies, including old favorites like pop sockets, pins, pens, stickers and totes, as well as some new swag like luggage tags and reusable straws. We’ve also added a prize wheel that will be used at some events for even bigger giveaways like gift cards and devices!

Over on our Instagram, Joe will be hosting monthly giveaways as well! We put a lot of thought over our winter break on what to put up for grabs. Some of the things I’m most excited to give away are 100 books scratch-off posters, a cork globe to track past travels, and a smartphone camera lens for those that want to snap awesome photos of their current reads or adventures. So make sure to follow us @digitalbookmobile!

This year we are also partnering with our friends on OverDrive’s Outreach Services team to bring some amazing themed events on select dates. Our first themed event will be at Los Angeles Public Library on Valentine’s Day. At this event, we will have a photo booth and takeaway items like literary Valentine’s postcards, ebook heart stickers, and Libby-branded chocolate candies. We can’t wait to share some Libby love in Los Angeles!

Although we are bringing many new changes this year, some things will remain the same. Joe and I will still be around to talk about all things books, Ira will be hauling our precious cargo from state-to-state making library staff laugh along the way, and Libby and Sora will be helping readers access their favorite ebook and audiobooks anywhere, anytime.

While traveling with the bookmobile is my full-time job, I also have what I consider a part-time job as a travel agent. After all, what kind of monster would I be if I didn’t take every opportunity to explore all the awesome places my job takes me? As the Digital Bookmobile team wraps up several projects that we have planned for the 2020 tour (be on the lookout for sweet new swag and exciting Instagram giveaways in the new year), I’ve been really diving deep into the planning of my time out on the road.

When I say planning my travel is like a part-time job, I’m not exaggerating! There are some nights I will scour what feels like every inch of the internet from the time I get home from work until the time I go to bed, carefully crafting an extensive and detailed excel document that includes all the best museums, coffee shops, parks, breweries and restaurants I can find. My method? Using Libby, Instagram, and Reddit to my advantage. Here are how these three resources help me plan my travel itinerary:

Libby
I love borrowing travel titles from Libby, especially because they can be downloaded for offline use to read on the plane. I have a few go-to searches I use to get me started, like specifically browsing by publishers such as Lonely Planet and Fodor’s Travels. These travel guides cover a variety of topics that can focus on specific travel destinations or broaden their scope to week-long road trips.

Once I exhaust those titles, I browse by all travel titles within subjects. This can take some digging, but I’ve found some incredibly useful books this way! Some of the books my library offers in their digital collection that I’m using to plan my travels in 2020 are Roadfood by Jane Stern, Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen, and The Great American Ale Trail by Christian Debenedetti.

Instagram
In an age where everyone carries a camera in their pocket, Instagram has made it incredibly easy to find unique places, delicious restaurants, and unforgettable experiences in just about any city. The trick to finding travel information on Instagram is all in the tags. There were some speed bumps when I first started using Instagram to plan my travel. I found out the hard way that by simply looking at posts in broad city tags like #sandiego, I would waste so much time wading through memes and ads to get to the good stuff.

The best way to search by tags on Instagram is to be specific. Instead of looking through the tag #sandiego with over 25 million posts, I now browse tags like #sandiegoeats, #sandiegofoodie, or my personal favorite, #sandiegobrewery. These tags have a fraction of the posts and center around food and drinks, making it less time consuming to find exactly what I am looking for. What I like about using Instagram to aid in my travel planning is that I can search for things by picture rather than text, which requires significantly less clicking than if I were to google “best restaurants in San Diego”.

Reddit
Reddit is a great platform to connect with people around the globe that share the same interests, but when I realized that I could use city-specific Reddit communities to form a travel itinerary, it changed the game. Communities like /r/cleveland and /r/sandiego have a thread containing weekly events pinned at the top of the page, and if the community is engaged, pinned threads like these can be useful for finding classes, cultural shows, or special events. Other communities like /r/denver provide full FAQs on their pages, which house a collection of useful information about their city’s tourism.

After I go through those threads, I will then use search words like “travel” and “restaurants” within that Reddit community. This provides individual threads that might have more up to date information than an FAQ that may only change occasionally. What I love about reading these threads is that all the recommendations are provided by residents, who might provide insights on hidden gems that aren’t featured on travel guide websites.

By far, my favorite way to use Reddit when planning my travel is to post in the community myself. If I have a time constraint or I am staying somewhere outside of the city, a post detailing my general location and availability allows residents to make suggestions based off my preferences. This helps avoid activities that don’t fit into my schedule and ensures I get the most out of my visit. There is no question too specific or request too large to pose. Friendly neighborhood Redditors usually has an answer!

By the time I finish browsing Libby, Instagram, and Reddit, there isn’t much the city could offer that isn’t already on my list. These three resources give a great mix of ideas from other tourists, hidden gems from locals, and main attractions from professionals. All of the planning has gotten me so excited to start this year’s tour! I hope you are able to come out and see us in a city near you!

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to set new reading goals. Whether you want to start reading, read more, or maintain the amount you read currently, the best way to start or keep a habit is to track your progress and make it fun! To help you accomplish your goals, we put together a list of three reading challenges you can take part in this year to help you find (or maintain) reading happiness.

The Professional Book Nerds 2020 Reading Challenge

Could we really make a reading challenge list without including our friends from The Professional Book Nerds? I think not! The Professional Book Nerds are back with a 2020 Reading Challenge that feature 12 categories to push readers to read outside their comfort zone. Professional Book Nerds’ hosts Adam and Jill also share their recommendations for each task on their podcast, making it even easier for you, so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Did I mention that by completing the challenge, readers are entered to win a free device from OverDrive? What are you waiting for!? You can find the rules for the Professional Book Nerds 2020 Reading Challenge here.

2020 Library Love Challenge

If you think you will have no problem completing the Professional Book Nerds reading challenge, you might as well also take part in the 2020 Library Love Challenge as well. This challenge encourages readers to show their library some love by reading 12 books specifically borrowed from the library. Books can be any genre and any format as long as the book is borrowed from the library. To find out more about this challenge, visit Angel’s Guilty Pleasures blog here.

2020 A to Z Reading Challenge

For those that want to challenge themselves to read even more this year, check out Ginger Mom and Company’s 2020 A to Z Reading Challenge. This challenge motivates readers to finish 26 books over the course of the year, each one with a title that starts with a different letter of the alphabet. Ginger Mom and Company host both an adult and a children’s version of the A to Z challenge, which is a great way to get the entire family involved. Readers that complete the A to Z challenge are entered to win a book of their choice (valued up to $20 at Amazon). To sign up for this challenge, check out Ginger Mom and Company’s blog here.

All three reading challenges allow crossovers from other challenges, which means you can participate in all three. Not only will you get to enjoy a boatload of books this year, but you’ll also triple your chances at winning some awesome prizes! Of course, reading just for the fun of it is a-okay too. Good luck and happy reading in 2020!

The holiday season is an excellent time to utilize your local library’s digital collection. In between all of the ugly sweater parties, family get-togethers and holiday recitals, it can be hard to squeeze in a trip to the library. Fortunately, Libby has thousands of titles to help you survive the busiest time of the year. Here are some of the best ways to use Libby during the holidays:

Use an extra hand in the kitchen

There is nothing quite like the whole family getting together to cook a delicious meal, bake holiday cookies, or sip on spiked eggnog. What’s not so great? Scouring the internet for new recipes for sweets and drinks. Here’s a pro tip: You can borrow an array of books that can assist you in the kitchen this holiday season with just a tap of your finger.

Inspire creativity

One of the best times of the year to break out the big box of craft supplies hiding in the top of the closet is the holiday season. A wreath made with free pinecones from the yard? Yes, please! Whether you’re looking to knit a last-minute gift for a friend, create ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree, or reuse those holiday cards in a fun new way, check out your library’s digital collection for hundreds of books that scratch that DIY itch.

Recuperate with a good book

Sometimes it feels like from mid-November to January 2nd we’re all on a never-ending planning, prepping, cooking, cleaning, and wrapping- loop, but it’s important to find a little time for some R & R & R (rest, relaxation and reading). So, make sure to set aside a few nights here and there to put on your fuzzy socks, snuggle up next to the fire, and download a cozy mystery, winter romance, or a holiday storybook to your smart device. Your body and your mind will thank you.

Become the life of the party

Fill the season with laughter by being the funniest person at your holiday party. Need new material on a moment’s notice? Don’t worry! You can borrow laugh out loud e-content 24/7. Libby has plenty of titles that will keep you and your family laughing through the New Year.

Strive for self-improvement

It’s that time of year again to break a bad habit (or start a new healthy one), but a little assistance never hurt. Let Libby double as your therapist, financial advisor, or personal trainer by browsing the non-fiction section of your library’s digital collection to find a title that fits your New Year’s resolution!