The new app means you’ll need to force downloads if you’re planning to read the magazines offline. Zinio was much better at just automatically downloading the magazines.
I haven’t been able to find a way to download the magazines without opening each one and waiting for them to complete their download. The magazines you’ve selected will appear but are not downloaded.
Occasionally it will prompt me for a pin or password but restarting the app eliminates that. This app is not as well written as the Libby app and I have had frequent issues using it. Instead, half of my screen remains empty. I’d much prefer that the content be integrated – books and magazines in a flow – or separated, so I can see just my magazines since I have no audiobooks. The top pane has your audiobooks, the bottom one your magazines. Overall the new interface isn’t much to write home about. The new app is RBDigital, which is a pretty poor name since that’s their media selection site as well. Having the two together in a single app makes sense, since RBMedia owns both products. I don’t use OneClickDigital’s audiobooks but am a heavy Zinio user. This merger was news to the librarian I mentioned it to. This defeats one of the benefits of ebooks. From a library’s perspective, it means that every book that’s checked out is essentially gone for the maximum loan period, even if it could potentially be ready to rejoin the collection. This has been an annoying Overdrive feature for some time.
As in the past, once you’ve downloaded a book, you can’t return it. Assuming you’re on a network after you borrow the book, you’ll see it start to automatically download on your bookshelf. Until you download it, you’ll just see an Online only link.īut you can set your books to auto-download, which is a nice feature. So if you have not downloaded the book and aren’t on a network, you will not be able to read a book. Before you had buttons to download a book or read it in-app. The bookshelf is less intuitive in the new app. The only way to switch libraries is to open the hamburger menu and choose Switch Libraries. But selecting my other library card doesn’t switch libraries. Clicking 1 Library card takes me to my list of 2 library cards. In my case, I have 2 libraries and have saved 2 library cards in the app.
In fact, there are now a couple of areas in the app that you might think would take you to your other libraries. Overdrive’s Libby app, main page with a Sarah Vowell book selected at the bottom. You have the option to Switch Library on the menu but that’s not what the library button does, which is strange. The word library on the left doesn’t do anything. The word shelf on the right takes you to your bookshelf. The large disc at the bottom – with a book jacket in it – will take you to the book you’re currently reading. It’s still populating with a library specific site within the app, but there is new navigation at the bottom to help you get to your books. The new Libby app has more of an app feel. In fact, your library’s Overdrive page is very much like the app. The app feels like a frame around a Web page, and not very sophisticated. from your book account) site has enabled browser-based e-book access. The Overdrive app has been out for awhile and their (it goes to. I am a long time e-book user through the public library. Overdrive has released Libby and RBMedia is collapsing Zinio and OneClickDigital into RBDigital. It was interesting, then to see that some of the apps have released new – seemingly parallel – versions that, in some cases, reduce the complexity for users.
Public libraries license a variety of content and are, in my mind, gatekeeping far more access points than the average library user can navigate.