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Category: Libby

Adapting to the RLA Partner Change

Published by District Consultant on April 16, 2025

As of April 15, 2025, New Castle District Library Center is no longer participating in our partner Reciprocal Lending Agreement.
Libby users belonging to Seneca District Libraries, Erie County Public Libraries, Crawford County Federated Library System, and Oil Creek Library District will continue to be able to use all four of those collections without interruption.

We apologize for any inconvience to our users. This was a difficult and disappointing decision to make, but it was necessary to maintain services for our local users at the quality which they expect and deserve.

If you have items from New Castle’s collection checked out:

You will be able to retain them until the end of your checkout period, but no renewals will be available.

If you had holds on items in New Castle’s collection:

All holds at New Castle will be cancelled. You will need to search for the items in our and our other partner collections. The collection managers will be receiving a list of the titles on hold at New Castle and will be working to provide those titles to the best of our ability within the partnership. We are not, however, able to see who had those holds, so you will need to be placing replacement holds in your app.

To Remove New Castle from your app:

Numbered with steps for the Libby app. Unfortunately, there is no way to see or edit what the app thinks is your home library .

  1. At the bottom of the Libby app, select Menu (the three lines in the shaded circle)
  2. Tap Manage Cards.
  3. At the top, make sure the drop down menu says New Castle District Library Center
  4. Tap the three horizontal dots icon at the bottom
  5. Tap Remove Card
  6. The New Castle collection will be removed from your app as soon as you remove your card.

If this doesn’t work:

Contact your home library or use the “Trouble Logging In” form.

Upgrading Your Instant Card

Published by District Consultant on February 21, 2025

Instant Cards are library cards that we are able to offer instantly to allow access to Libby. Eligibility is based on the billing address for the phone number. These cards are intended as a temporary access and they do expire after six months.

For continued access, patrons will need to contact their home library to sign up for a full service card (or you can complete the online form here). As a bonus, once your upgrade to your full service card, you gain access to our other resources, like:

  • Access to 25,000+ more ebook and digital audiobook titles from our Partner libraries
  • Free streaming music service (including free weekly downloads) from FreegalMusic
  • Free six-week long, instructor led lifelong learning courses from Gale Courses

Next Steps

If you did not use this form and went directly to your home library, you will need to complete the Account Merger form in order to ensure that all of your holds and checkouts migrate over to your full-service card.

Add your new full-service card:

  1. At the bottom of the Libby app, select Menu.
  2. Tap Manage Cards. Make sure the library at the stop says “Oil Creek Library District”.
  3. Tap Add Card.
  4. Tap Sign In With My Card.
  5. Select your home library from the list.
  6. Type in your full-service card number (it should have 14 digits).
  7. Tap Sign In.

Remove Your Instant Card:

  1. At the bottom of the Libby app, select Menu.
  2. Tap Manage Cards.
  3. You should see a card with a your phone number; your full-service card will likely say “Linked Card”.
  4. On the Instant Card with the phone number, tap the three horizontal dots icon at the bottom
  5. Tap Remove Card.

Happy Reading!

Partner Library Collections

Published by District Consultant on December 20, 2024

With your library card, you can access collections from Erie County, Crawford County, Seneca, and New Castle as well as our home Oil Creek collection. With your home library card, you can checkout items from all 5 Libby collections!

General Adding a Card Video Instructions

Credit to: Libby

Written Instructions

Step One: Login with your Home library card

Make sure you are logged in to the Oil Creek with an District member library card on your app.

If you are not already logged in, be sure to do this process for your home library first. (If you can, save the number in your phone to save you some time!)

Tap on the Menu button in the bottom center of the app screen.

Step Two: Add the partner library to your app

Tap “Add Library”

Search for the library collection name you are adding.

  • Home: Oil Creek
  • Partner Libraries:
    • Seneca District Libraries
    • New Castle District Library Center
    • Erie County Public Library
    • Crawford County Federated Library System

Step Three: Log in with your home library card

Once you add a library, you will be taken to the collection home screen. Your first time you should see a screen like the one to the right.

Tap “Sign in with My Card”

Under the “Partner Libraries” section, find your home library. Usually the app brings the home library card in the app to the top of the list as shown; if it does not, the list of partner libraries is alphabetical. Scroll down to find your library name.

Use your home library card number to sign in.

Step Four: Success (and Repeat)

Congratulations! You are now signed in to our partner library.
Repeat these steps for each of our partner libraries.

NOTES

You can switch between collections to browse them easily. Just tap the menu icon on the bottom of the app screen, then tap on the library that you want to switch to. It will take you back to the home page of the collection you want to browse.

(The library icon will change color to match the colors of the collection you’re viewing.)

When you search for a specific title, author, or series, Libby will automatically search all of the collections that you have added to your app, so you can see everything that is available to you.

If you have any problems logging in to a partner library, call your home library first to verify your account. Our partner libraries all use the home library’s systems, so the issue usually lies there.

Recommend a Digital Title

Published by District Consultant on November 18, 2024

Did you know that you can recommend a title for our collection?
The feature in Libby is called “Notify Me Tag”. Any tags that a patron adds to their app are sent to all of their library collections. That sends the library a signal that there is interest for a title so they can build a collection that better serves you. If one of your collections adds the the title, you will get a notification either in the app or via email.
Notify Me Tags are anonymous to the library; libraries just see the number of tags next to a title.
If you can’t find the title in Libby with the Deep Search, it’s most likely that the publisher has not made the digital versions available for the library to purchase.

Video Instructions

Credit to: Libby

Written Instructions

Step One: Find the title

Make sure you are logged in with a library card on your app.

Tap the “Search” Magnifying Glass icon at the bottom of the app.

If you see the title you’d like, skip to step 3.

Step Two: Use Deep Search and Filters

If you do not see the title, scroll to the bottom of the list, or tap the filters list icon to find “deep search”.
(Note: If your original search has more than 100 titles, you will need to refine your search before the deep search feature is available.)

Use the Filters list to narrow down by format or language.

Step Three: Add the tag

If none of the collections you have in your app own the title, you will see a grey icon with a gold alarm bell icon.
Tap on this icon, then tap the plus sign on the next screen.

If this is your first time adding a Notify Me tag, you will see this screen, asking you if you want a shelf notice or email notification if your library adds the title.
(Shelf notices appear as a red indicator near the top of your shelf, within the app.)

You are able to edit these preferences under “Menu > Notifications” in the future.

Step Four: Manage Your Tags

If one of your libraries purchases the title, you’ll be notified and have the option to borrow or place the title on hold (depending on its availability). Holds do not happen automatically.

Did you get a copy of the item in your Notify Me tags and are no longer interested? It’s easy to remove the tags.

Tap on “Tags”, then navigate to the tag with the alarm bell and “Smart Tag: Notify Me”. Tap on it.

When the list appears, swipe left on the title until the trash can icon appears, then tap to delete.

You can also remove the tag from the Title Detail Screen. Just tap on the tag with the bell, then uncheck the tag on the next screen.

Home Library Change Impacting Libby Access

Published by District Consultant on November 8, 2024

As of late September 2024, the Libby app requires patrons’ selected library at login to match the Home library listed in our system. If you are currently having problems logging in, it may be because Libby is trying to login under a different home library than what is listed in our system. Typically, the error message will be “Your library card is not able to access this library.”

To solve this problem, retry logging in using your home library (have your library card number handy):

Numbered with steps for the Libby app. Unfortunately, there is no way to see or edit what the app thinks is your home library .

  1. At the bottom of the Libby app, select Menu
  2. Tap Manage Cards.
  3. On your existing Oil Creek Library District card, tap the three horizontal dots icon at the bottom
  4. Tap Remove Card
  5. Re-add your card selecting the correct home library.
  6. Repeat these steps for each of our partner library collections: Seneca District Libraries, Crawford County Federated Library System, New Castle District Library Center, and Erie County Public Library.
  7. (Optional, not pictured) Tap the three horizontal dots icon at the bottom (same place as in step 3).
  8. Tap Rename Card.
  9. Rename your card with your home library name.

If this doesn’t work:

Contact your home library or use the “Trouble Logging In” form. It’s possible our system has the incorrect Home Library!

I can log in but can’t see my holds, checkouts, or history:

Complete the form “Libby Account Merger Request“. Libby sees each account and home library pair as a separate account, so library staff needs to manually merge them on the administrative back- end.