How to Use Kobo + OverDrive Integration With Multiple Library Cards

Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash

After a few years with my e-reader from everyone’s favorite internet bookstore turned internet everything store, the e-reader’s screen stopped working. In the past, I would have logged into the aforementioned internet everything store and ordered the latest version of the same device I had before in one or two clicks. Lately I’ve been doing all I can to avoid giving my money to Papa Jeff, so I looked around for popular alternatives to the device that is now essentially synonomous with e-readers.

I ended up getting the Kobo Clara HD because of its built in integration with OverDrive. OverDrive is the service behind Libby, the app which I use to get all of my e-books free from libraries. Kobo has great documentation on linking your OverDrive account on the device, and even without the documentation it’s very intuitive to set up through the settings menu.

It’s here where I hit an issue: on the Libby app I have multiple library cards saved, and adding more is very easy, but when linking OverDrive to Kobo, you’re required to pick one library and sign in with that single card. I currently have four library cards due to moving several times in recent years. I like having all four cards linked in Libby because if a book I want to read has a long wait time at one library, it often has a shorter wait (or none at all) at another. Luckily, I could still use the Libby to check out books and after a sync they would show up on my device. The issue of course is that I would be restricted to only checking out books through the one library that I linked in the settings.

I want to clarify here that I realize how much of a nothing problem this is. Most people are perfectly content using a single library card, and I should be too, but taking away my option to use multiple cards felt like a great injustice.

Anyway, I figured out a way around this and I’m not entirely sure why it works. You will be able to sync books checked out through Libby on multiple library cards, but will still be limited to one library when browsing and borrowing books in the on-device store, so if there’s a particular library you would like to use for that, save that card for last (you’ll see why during the process below).

Here’s the process to link multiple library cards through OverDrive on your Kobo device (Step 4 is the most important):

1. Navigate to the OverDrive login from the home screen by tapping “More” in the bottom-right corner of the screen, tapping “Settings”, then “OverDrive”.
2. If you are already logged in, tap the “Sign out” text under “Overdrive Account” and confirm to sign out.
3. Tap “Get Started” to sign in, create account or sign in, choose one of your libraries.
4. On the page that says “Sign in with your library card”, scroll down and tap the “Sign in with OverDrive” button that was hidden behind the keyboard and sign in with your OverDrive credentials.
5. Close the success window, navigate back to the OverDrive page in settings and add your library card for the listed library.
6. Follow steps 1–5 for each additional library card

This is a pretty simple, but unintuitive process since you have to log out between each card. As for why it works, I would guess that adding your library card after logging into OverDrive saves the card info to your OverDrive account (something that inexplicably is not possible through the OverDrive website). It’s also possible that it saves your library card info directly onto your device, but that seems less likely to me. It would be easy enough for me to test, but I might lose my mind if I have to type my OverDrive password on this thing one more time.