Libby: Free Knowledge
August 21st, 2019 was an interesting day for me. It was an average wednesday, except that I had just gotten an audiobook copy of When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Being the 2x playback speed fiend that I am, I made it to the end in a couple of days and found myself tearing up in the gym in between sets of incline bench press. This was actually the first audiobook I had ever listened to completion, and the best part was… it was free?¹
What is Libby?
In a nutshell, Libby is an app that gives you free access to e-books and audiobooks through your local public library system.
Libby was created by OverDrive, which is the global distributor of digital content for libraries and schools. OverDrive² partners with schools and libraries to help create digital repositories of their knowledge which they help distribute. Their mission is to “create a world enlightened by reading” so basically, they’re awesome. Maybe I’ll dress up as Libby for Halloween this year to show my support.
With this mission, Libby acts as a free technologically leveraged resource for knowledge. The library system has been a staple of America since the very beginning, and Libby serves as a stepping stone towards bringing this public utility into the twenty-first century. Like the public library system, it works on a reservation system, allowing you…
