The ONE Tool Every Book Nerd Needs

Hello, fellow Book Nerds, Book Lovers, Writers, Readers, and other People of the Book!

I am about to change your life. Ok, that might be a bit hyperbolic, but I am 100% going to save you time and money.

I’d like to introduce you to Library Extension, a free browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge) that automatically – and instantly – tells you if a book or ebook you’re viewing on a retail site, or on Goodreads, is available at your local library.

Now listen, I’m not saying we shouldn’t BUY ALL THE BOOKS. But when we shop in brick and mortar bookstores, we preview the book, right? We hold it in our hands, turn it over a couple times, open it up and take a good whiff of the pages. We probably even read a few of those pages. But we lose much of that experience when we shop online.

That’s where Library Extension comes in. Once it’s installed on your browser, if you’re looking at a book online and you’re not 100% sure it’s a book you want to own, you’ll know right away if your library has a copy.

Like this…

Or this…

If your library does have an available copy, just click on the borrow button (see it there on the right?) and you’ll be taken directly to your library’s website to put it on hold. Easy peasy!

Library Extension supports over 5,000 libraries and you can add multiple library catalogs to your account, so it searches multiple library catalogs at once. I’m telling you, it’s magic. (If you’re committed to borrowing rather than buying, WorldCat also searches multiple libraries at once. Check it out!)

As a writer of nonfiction for kids, I do a lot of research and I often start by checking to see what books are available on Amazon. But I don’t want to spend money on a book that doesn’t have the information I need, so I almost always borrow a book from the library before making a purchase. Library Extension makes that super easy and, sometimes, instantaneous. If an ebook version of the book I’m viewing is available from the library, I download it to my Kindle app immediately. (You can download the Kindle app for free on iOS Android, Mac, and PC. You don’t need to own the Kindle device anymore.)

So, there you have it! Here’s a link to some Library Extension FAQs and a video on How to Install Library Extension. It’s really simple.

I hope you use it and love it, just like I do!