Audiobooks offer a great way to escape while you’re working, cooking, or cleaning. They have also been proven to help struggling readers access literature. But a battle still rages: audiobooks vs. reading. Which side are you on? Weigh in below in the comments section!

If you are new to audiobooks, here’s a short guide to getting started with audiobooks at the Free Library.

Finding Audiobooks:

Search our library catalog by title, author, subject, or another term. In your search results, audiobooks will be labeled with a blue audiobook download tag and a blue downloadable audiobook icon. 

Narrow your results to only audiobooks by using the Narrow Search feature. Follow the link to check out the book. Or you can browse all the audiobooks available for download.

Audiobook Platforms:

There are so many ways to listen to audiobooks at the library! Our top audiobook platforms include:

• RBdigital - our largest selection of the latest and greatest audiobooks
• Audiobooks from OverDrive - for new and bestselling fiction and non-fiction
• hoopla - thousands of audiobooks, with no waitlist ever
• OverDrive Kid’s eReading Room - audiobooks for kids and fans of kidlit

Visit our Digital Media page for a full list of our offerings. 

Listening to Audiobooks:

You can listen to audiobooks in a variety of ways: using a phone, tablet, laptop, MP3 player, and even from your desktop computer. Many of our platforms have free downloadable apps, including RBdigital, OverDrive/Libby, and Hoopla. Depending on the platform, you can download books as MP3 files, or play the audiobook in your browser or app.

Recommending a Title:

Our collection is always growing. If there’s an audiobook you would like to read that we do not have, please use the Recommend a Title feature in OverDrive from your browser or the classic OverDrive app and we will do our best to add it to the collection.

If you need additional help on how to use our resources, check out these guides:

• RBdigital
• Overdrive Libby application
• hoopla