Lost in a Good Book

I’m here today to tell you about a fantastic extension for Chrome and Firefox that will not only help utilise your libraries but might help you save money on buying books. Late in 2017 I discovered Library Extension, a brilliant little addition to your browser that allows you to see books held in your local libraries while you browse the internet.

When I first found this extension my library wasn’t supported but they are always looking for new libraries to add so I filled out the feedback form, provided the details for my library then all I had to do was sit back and wait. To be honest I had to wait 17 months but I received an email a few months ago saying it had now been included. Now, I’m not saying it will take a year to include your own library if you are not one of the 4000 included, whether it took longer because I’m in Australia or some other reason I don’t know. According to their FAQ most libraries can be added in a few days.

With the extension it will show me if a book I am looking up is held in my library, it will also tell me how many copies they have and how many of those are available (this also covers music and audiobooks as well). If something is on the catalogue all I have to do is click View and I’m sent straight to my library’s online catalogue. Also, if your library has Overdrive as an ebook service you can also connect it to that and see what ebooks are available through your library.

I love this extension so much. I can browse Goodreads and see if the book I want is actually sitting on my library shelf. One extra advantage is if you are a member of multiple libraries, you can connect all of them and the extension will show you which branches have what. The websites I have seen it work for are Goodreads, Booktopia, Book Depository, and Amazon (both US and Australian). There is a list of full sites I believe it will work on on the website.

The site boasts that this will save you time and money and I cannot agree more. Getting a chance to read a book for free before deciding whether to buy it is wonderful, not to mention it gets you out there supporting your local library (as a librarian I have to add that in). Practicality-wise, there is also the benefit of having the information right on my browser which saves me opening up my library catalogue or remembering to look it up later. Plus, you do not have to register, sign in, join, or pay. You simply add the extension like you would any other and bam! Results.

My own experience is one of having my library added into the system so once I got the email telling me they’d included it, I had to wait about 12 hours for the full catalogue to come across and for my results to work correctly. I don’t know if this is for each installation but even so, it’s incredibly quick. The extension also updates every few hours so you’re being presented with the most up to date information.

The success rate is fairly high in my limited experience. A few times it has said there are no copies of a book despite me knowing for a fact there is but I’m not sure if that is connected to some issue with metadata, or normal glitches that comes from being still relatively new for my library. The extension itself is a few years old, but having only found it a couple years ago and only gotten a chance to use it this year I am keen to reap the benefits from having that happy little box on my screen that tells me all the great books I can borrow with a click of a button.

Everyone should download this if they’re able. It is a great way to utilise your local library (again, job requirement to add that in there) and it still blows my mind that I can so easily see what my library holds.