Digital Media Guide

Borrowing ebooks and audiobooks, downloading podcasts, and streaming media such as movies, music, and even comic books, from Free Library has never been easier. In this guide, we'll offer tips and information to get you started or troubleshoot any issues you may be having access downloadable and streaming media and digital titles from our catalog.

Guides

Digital Media Guide

Links

  • Google Play

    Enjoy millions of the latest Android apps, games, music, movies, TV, books, magazines & more, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • iTunes App Store

    Browse and download apps to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from the App Store, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • Kindle App Store

    Instant access to thousands of the most popular free and best-selling apps and games, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • NOOK Store

    Your one-stop-shop for all things NOOK.

ebook Classics by StaffPicks

Great public domain reads you can download for free.

Metamorphosis cover
becoming jane eyre cover
oliver twist cover
pride and prejudice cover
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
picture of dorian gray cover

View the full list

Latest Audiobooks by FreeLibrary

Latest Audibooks added to our collections.

Metro girl cover
The time traveler's wife cover
Wicked prey cover
The buried giant cover
Girl in a band a memoir cover
The whites a novel cover

View the full list

Electronic Resources

Upcoming Events

Blog Posts

Setting up the Phase One camera system in the The Free Library's New Center for Digitization

The Free Library's New Center for Digitization | Sharing Treasures Through Technology

" If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday" Pearl S. Buck   Putting the contents of libraries and museums on the web makes wonderful, hidden art accessible. The Free Library of Philadelphia has…

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Enjoy your holiday travels with an audiobook!

Digital Media Spotlight | New Audiobooks for Holiday Travels

It's getting close to being "the most wonderful time of the year", or, if you have to travel far and wide—over the river and through the woods even—you may need some help getting to where you need to be for…

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Visit our Author Events YouTube channel today, browse and watch some videos, leave a comment, and click the subscribe button!

Introducing the Free Library’s Author Events YouTube Channel!

We know that not everyone is lucky enough to live in Philadelphia. For those who aren’t able to make it to our diverse line-up of author talks in person—no worries! You can now watch them streamed live on our new Author…

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Stream these screams... if you dare!

Digital Media Highlights October 2019 | Streaming Screams Just in Time for Halloween!

At the beginning of each month, we highlight all the great new titles —books, ebooks, audiobooks, movies, and music—that have been added to our catalog and will be available to check out at your neighborhood library .…

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Surf, swipe, and stream through all of the Free Library's digital media offerings available—<i>for free</i>—with a library card!

Library Card Sign-Up Month | Take a Trip Through Our Digital Media Portal

You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of entertainment. Next stop, the Free Library of Philadelphia's Digital Media Portal ! In these…

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If you’ve gained a new perspective on slavery’s legacy since picking up the #1619Project and you want to learn more, the Free Library has some great resources that you must explore.

Find Out How Slavery Made Our World with These Free Library Resources

Have you read the 1619 Project yet? It’s the award-winning special issue of the New York Times Magazine all about American Slavery that was published last month. The project’s creator, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones , writes…

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#eBooksforAll

Changes to ebook Lending Coming to a Library Near You

As you may have read in the news, recent changes in the publishing industry will soon impact library customers’ access to some newly released ebook titles. Macmillan Publishers—one of the "Big 5" book publishers in…

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Enjoy Zumba at home with your library card!

A Library Card Keeps You Movin’ and Groovin’

Thanks to the Free Library’s huge selection of digital media , most of our patrons know that their library cards gain them access to books, music, movies, and more that travel with them—on the trolley, around the…

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Are You Reading Fake News?

Are You Reading Fake News?

If you’re getting your news mostly from social media, your information diet is probably a little lacking. You might even be consuming fake news , which the New York Times defines as "a published news report that can be easily…

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The Library Extension browser extension helps you see book, ebook, audiobook, and movie availability from your local library when visiting other websites such as Amazon or Goodreads.

Library Browser Extension Helps Show Book, ebook, Audiobook, and Movie Catalog Availability on Non-Library Websites

Ever been searching for a title on Amazon (or on Google, and then the first search result back gives you a link to Amazon) and wish you could also find out whether that same title is available at your local library ?  Check out…

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Toni Morrison

Remembering Toni Morrison, 1931–2019

When I first read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison , at 15 years old, I knew it would haunt me. The story fed my soul—I was shocked at its lovely, yet stinging taste, but realized I had always been craving it. Never had my struggle…

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Summer fun in our digital collections

Summer at the Free Library!

Now that summer is upon us, we hope you’ve got the Free Library on your mind! Whether you’re looking for something fun to do outside, plan to cool off at your neighborhood library location , or take us along on your vacation…

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Typewriters provided by Philly Typewriter and art catalogs by Philadelphia Museum of Art Library

Get Creative Through the DIY Method of Zine Making!

A zine (pronounced zeen) is a small-circulation, self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images. Usually hand-made using found materials and simple supplies, zines can be about any topic and take various shapes and…

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Go Digital! Demonstration at Lillian Marrero Library

Go Digital! Community Access to Subscription Databases

Tamoul Quakhaan is a Library Supervisor 1 / Training and Development Assistant in the Human Resources Department and a participant in Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries Trainings.  After participating in the…

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Just some of the newest additions to our digital magazines subscriptions through RBdigital!

New Digital Magazines: Glossies from Africa to Latin America

Dive into film, international fashion, current events, and more with the newest additions to our digital magazines subscriptions through RBdigital . New World Language Magazines Read at your leisure in Spanish, Chinese, and French:…

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Acclaimed American conductor Maestra JoAnn Falletta

Fleisher Discoveries | #5WomenArtists (+1)

by Kile Smith The National Museum of Women in the Arts asked, "Can you name five women artists?" March is Women’s History Month , and Fleisher Discoveries is answering that question with five women composers –…

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Julius Bittner

Fleisher Discoveries | Mahler's Friend, Julius Bittner

Julius Bittner was born in Vienna in 1874, growed up just outside of his hometown, and died in that same town in January 1939. He was pretty much immediately forgotten after his death. Well, in 1939, Austria, Europe, and the world at…

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Check out this list of must-see silent films—everything from romance to horror to comedy to epic drama—available at the Free Library, either on DVD or offered on our streaming services Hoopla and Kanopy!

Masterpieces of Silent Film at the Free Library

On a cold winter day 125 years ago, only two hours from here in West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison  completed construction on the Black Maria , (pronounced "muh-RYE-uh") the world’s first film…

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Winter at the Free Library

Stay Cozy with the Free Library this Winter!

It’s wintertime in Philly. Even in the absence of snow, (thus far!), this means the sun rises later and sets earlier than in bordering seasons. It’s enough to make a person feel like hibernating. Well, the Free Library can…

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Podcasts

Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake | <i>The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats</i>
Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake | The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats
Feminista Jones | <i>Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets</i> with DaMaris B. Hill | <i>A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing</i>
Feminista Jones | Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets with DaMaris B. Hill | A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing
Ken Auletta | <i>Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)</i>
Ken Auletta | Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)
Michio Kaku | <i>The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth</i>
Michio Kaku | The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth
Edward Snowden in Conversation with Jeremy Scahill | The Surveillance State Then and Now
Edward Snowden in Conversation with Jeremy Scahill | The Surveillance State Then and Now