Ever have a book that you’ve been dying to read, but you just can’t find a copy of it? Most of us probably have—there are so many good books. A couple of the Libby app’s newest features help you discover titles your library* doesn’t have, and get a notification if the library purchases one you want.

You can find more details below, but here's a brief overview of the new features (enable full screen for optimal viewing):

Search for books that aren’t in your library’s digital collection

You may be wondering, what is deep search in Libby? Deep search is what makes everything possible; it’s the ability to find titles in Libby search results that aren’t in your library’s collection. Your searches in Libby aren’t deep searches by default. A search will only become a deep search in one of two situations:

✔️ When you run a search and no titles in your library's collection match your search query.

✔️ When you run a search with fewer than 100 results, and you manually turn on the "deep search" filter in the search results screen.

How to use Notify Me in Libby to share your interest with the library

The next question is: How do you use Notify Me in Libby? It wouldn’t be much use to find books your library doesn’t have unless you can do something with them. That’s where the Notify Me smart tag comes in. You can tap Notify Me next to a book that’s not in your library’s catalog to tag it with a Notify Me smart tag.

If this is the first time you’ve pressed the Notify Me button, you’ll see a quick tutorial on setting up a Notify Me smart tag.

If your library purchases a title tagged with your Notify Me smart tag, you’ll get a notification and have the option to borrow the title or place it on hold.

Putting it all together

Taken together, these features let you look for titles your library doesn’t have and express that you’re interested in them. Then, if your library buys the title, you get a notification and can borrow the title or place it on hold.

This new functionality opens up a lot of possibilities for readers and libraries alike and is something I’d recommend everyone try out if your library offers it. Until next time, and best of luck in your search for great books!

*Not all libraries offer this feature at this time.