Mobile App Critique

For this post, I will review one of my favorite mobile apps: Libby.

Libby is a library app that allows you to borrow books from various libraries, as long as you have access to a library card for that library. As far as I can tell, there is no limit to the number of library cards you can add to your Libby account. 

So, if you have friends and family in different states or towns, you can easily share cards with each other. 

This ability to use multiple cards means that if searching for a book that is not available at one library, one can quickly and easily borrow the book from another library if it is available there.

I have found Libby to be extremely user friendly. 

Once the app is downloaded and libraries added, the first thing I would recommend is to go to settings and adjust your notifications and preferences e.g language, where you prefer to read the books.

At the bottom of the screen, you will notice a navigation bar with 5 icons: search, current library, home, shelf and timeline. These options can be accessed by tapping on them.

Features:

To start a search, simply tap on the search icon. A search bar will appear with the library name underneath. 

You can choose to search by typing in the name of the author or book. You can also use the filters to narrow down by format (e.g audiobook) and genre (e.g science fiction).

The “current library” icon will bring up a landing page for the last library accessed. From this page however, one can only search via the filters mentioned above, there is no ability to free text provided.

The home button shows a list of the libraries logged into and provides the ability to edit these or add new libraries. 

As mentioned before, there doesn’t appear to be a limit to how many libraries can be added. One can also access settings, help and support, provide feedback and learn more about the app from this icon.

The Shelf icon shows all the books borrowed on all the cards and offers options to read or return the books. 

It also shows how many days are remaining on the loan. If there are any books on hold, there is a tab at the top of the Shelf that will navigate to the books on hold and show current position in the line.

The final icon is the Timeline. 

This icon shows a list of all books borrowed from all the libraries, the library the book was borrowed from, the date borrowed, how long the loan was held and when it was returned. If wanting more information on the book, simply tap on the book and it will bring up more information.

Two of my favorite Libby features: 

• The ability to copy the account to a different device
• Ability to download books or magazines for offline reading. 

For instance, if you like to read on several different devices, simply go to “settings”, select “copy to another device” and enter the code that is generated onto the other devices. This ensures that whatever book you are reading on the app will automatically open to the exact same page.

The feature to download books means that even if flying or in a place with low or no wifi, I can still access my bookshelf and read. A check-sign next to the book shows the book is downloaded to the device

App Improvement Recommendation

The one drawback I have noticed with Libby is that everyone who uses the same card can access all books borrowed on that card. Since I share my card with my very young nieces and nephews, I find this feature rather inconvenient as we do not read on the same level. I have sent this recommendation to Libby and hope to see an improvement in future for this.