Their lists refreshed, the staff can watch as - click, click, click - the copies get snapped up, boosting the circulation numbers. Romance and self-help are always in demand. That’s thanks in no small part to dedicated librarians who search the collection daily for good options to throw to the top of the Staff Picks page, looking for buzzy books that have available copies. Torontonians borrow more ebooks than anyone else in the world this past year, they checked out over six million items through Libby and OverDrive. “This role has the ability to influence reading,” she says with a sly laugh. Today, patrons can browse over 180,000 - often through catchy, thoughtfully curated lists. When she took over the job in 2011, the collection included just 5,000 titles. And, indeed, she sees herself as a kind of unknown influencer of reading habits at the Toronto Public Library. Talking to Cipriano is like pulling back the curtain on the key wizard at a general switchboard.
The sage behind all this fun, in Toronto at least, has been Maria Cipriano, who managed the city’s Libby collection until her retirement this past July. It’s a nice little reminder to keep up with your reading. The book will show up on the shelf in your pocket in a few days or weeks: here’s this new and interesting thing that you have only three weeks to enjoy. If you can’t get to your local branch to pick up a loan, you can just tap to add a hold every time you encounter an interesting review or hear a compelling author interview. Maybe it’s dark, and turning on a light would disturb a sleeping companion - infant or adult. Maybe they’re commuting and prefer audiobooks. Though it’s not yet well known - many users still rely on its clunkier predecessor, OverDrive - Libby gives people all sorts of reasons to read on their phones or tablets. You can change text size and colour to suit your needs, and you can bookmark your page across devices. Sign in with your library card once and - boom! You can read or listen to audiobooks, browse curated collections and search for particular titles, place holds, and get notifications when items show up on your virtual hold shelf. Since its debut in 2017, it has combined the best of e-commerce and digital book design in a space where the reads are, appropriately, free. Libby, an app available through libraries across Canada, meets readers where they are: on their phones.
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