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How to digitally borrow books from the library while it’s closed

Shaye Weaver
Written by
Shaye Weaver
Editor, Time Out New York
NYPL
Photograph: Courtesy of Shutterstock
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With more time on your hands at home these days, you can finally catch up on all those books you've been meaning to read.

Social distancing, though, may make it impossible to head to your local bookstore, but you can still borrow books from the library simply by being a New York City resident. Despite closing its physical locations, the New York Public Library has more than 300,000 titles you can read digitally.

To gain access, NYPL's free e-reader app, SimplyE, can be downloaded for iPhone or Android.

There is a limit of three books that you can borrow because there has been a surge in the app's usage now that we're all at home, according to the library.

You can also search the library's collection of 800,000 digitized items, including historic prints, photographs, maps, and manuscripts and check out Mango Languages and Career Cruising with your library card.

And if you don't have a library card, now's the time to sign up. You can do that on the SimplyE app, too!

The Brooklyn Public Library also has titles you can borrow on its website if you have a card, and the Queens Library system, which is purchasing substantially more eBooks, audiobooks, and streaming films for this occasion, uses a number of e-reader apps. You can get a Queens Library eCard here.

Happy reading!

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