Columbia Library's Electronic Resources
Need help? To make an appointment for one-on-one assistance with your eReader or smartphone, call us at 618-281-4237.
- Download the app for your device and log into your library account. You can find links to all of the apps at http://www.yourcloudlibrary.com/index.php/en-us/
- Browse the collection, check out a book, or place a hold.
- Read!
To see if your device is compatible, consult the Device Cheat Sheet.
** Please note that as of March 2017 the Nook HD and HD+ are no longer compatible with the Cloud Library app from Google Play, but you can use your device’s browser (such as Google Chrome) to navigate to https://ebook.yourcloudlibrary.com/library/illinoisheartland/Featured and do all your searching and reading from there. Your device will need to stay connected to wi-fi to use the browser reading function.
Questions? Contact us or download our Cloud Library brochure.
You can browse our OverDrive collection of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and videos on your computer or download the classic OverDrive app.
Select “Columbia Public Library” as your library, then type in your library number and 4-digit pin.
The classic OverDrive app is recommended if using an older device or a Fire tablet, require the use of a screen reader, or want to view our selection of streaming videos.
Ebooks can be sent to your Kindle or Kindle reading app. Learn how.
Available on iOS, Android, Chromebooks, Kindle Fire, and laptop/desktop computers.
Need help? Visit the OverDrive Help site.
Libby is the new app to enjoy eBooks, eAudiobooks, and eMagazines from OverDrive.
Select “Columbia Public Library” as your library, then type in your library number and 4-digit pin.
Easy to get started for first-time users and a streamlined experience for current OverDrive app users.
Ebooks can be sent to your Kindle or Kindle reading app. Learn how.
Available from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for smartphones and tablets.
Need help? Visit our full Libby Help site.
Hoopla: 3-Step Sign up!
- Download the app and go to www.hoopladigital.com.
- Log in with your library card.
- Instantly, Read, Listen, and Watch with Your Library Card.
Hoopla How-To-Guides
Get Started with Hoopla (IOS, Android, & Kindle)
Using Hoopla Audio-book Chapters (IOS, Android, & Desktop)
Read the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Belleville News Democrat, and other newspapers from around the country with NewsBank! Just enter your Columbia Library barcode from the back of your library card for easy access. Search by newspaper title in the A-Z Source List, browse by suggested topics, or look through back issues using keywords and dates. Click to enter!
Free electronic resources online:
Audible (Amazon): Listen to hundreds of free children’s audiobooks online.
Hathi Trust Digital Library: Access more than 17 million of digitized items preserved by academic and research libraries from around the world.
International Children’s Digital Library: Read from a collection of 4600 plus books in 59 languages. Start your search by clicking ‘Read Books’.
Internet Archive: a library of fiction, popular books, children’s books, historical texts, and academic books based on a wide range of interests. Includes archives of old radio shows too.
Junior Library Guild Digital: Free eBooks for Elementary, Middle School and High school students. Readers get unlimited access to read books online from any device.
LibriVox: Thousands of free public domain audio-books for all ages.
ManyBooks: Free library of 50,000 plus eBooks consisting of literary classics from the Project Gutenburg archives and works of many self-published authors.
Project Gutenberg: A library of over 60,000 free eBooks of the world’s greatest literature published before 1924 and/or the U.S. copyright has expired.
ProPlay: Read play scripts, which have received professional productions available free-of-charge on the Web, to encourage their further production.
Questia: Over 5,000 public domain, classic and rare books from some of literature’s greatest authors, including Frederick Douglass, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare and more!
Standard eBooks: A collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain eBooks.
Unite for Literacy: Free digital access to more than 400 children’s picture books that are narrated in more than 40 languages.