Most libraries are part of a regional system that allows you to borrow from all of the libraries in the system.
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It all depends upon how your local library works. If they have agreements with other libraries as part of a consortium or some other lending agreement.
Some of us do have multiple library cards. For example, Brooklyn Public Library and Boston Public Library allow residents in their state to get a internet library card. Some libraries were allowing internet cards for people under 18 anywhere in the country.
I have been able to join all the various library systems (collaboratives of libraries) throughout my state using my home library card. I do it through Libby.
Keep in mind that there are statewide and nationwide library catalogs, where your local librarian can request a physical book for you from somewhere potentially far away. My library in MA got a book from Kansas City for a local MA patron.
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NYC actually has three different library systems dating from before 1900 when the city was consolidated. Brooklyn and Queens each have their own, and NY Public Library includes Staten Island, Manhattan and the Bronx.
Thx
When I request through my library I have access to books at others libraries they have reciprocity with but on Libby lately it will show I need an Emedia card and says my library does not support this- they use media on demand.
I live in one county and am very close and frequent the next county so I have cards at both. Ohio also has a statewide digital library and I am attached to that.
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Our library is part of a regional system. However, lately it has been annoying because if I find a book that says it is available now and click to borrow it, it sometimes tells me it is actually owned by a different library and so is not actually available now and lets me put a hold on it. This just changed a couple of months ago.
Yes, each consortium has their own rules. Some will not let a book be checked out to another library’s patron if it is considered “new”.
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My husband had an independent bookstore right near his office and he went there at least once a week. As a result, we have lots of books. The store had a few perks–for each book you bought, you’d get a “credit” and once you had X number of credits you got a free book. When we would run out of shelf space, we would donate the books we didn’t want to keep to a book sale that our local library has every Spring. The sale raises money for the library.
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I’m almost done with Jeannine A Cook’s Shut Up and Read – it’s been a refreshingly fun memoir and still interesting, so she doesn’t skip the hard parts about establishing a book shop while trying to get through the pandemic. Cook is the owner/operator of Harriet’s Bookshop in Philadelphia, in addition to a couple other bookshops (one of which is in Paris)
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@greenbutton I just put that on my library queue.
I rarely want books I’ve passed along to be returned. Most I pass on to my mom and then they end up in their CCRC library. Others go to friends or the annual library book sale.
A friend just returned a pile of books she is sure I gave her, and I am remembering very few. One cover looks vaguely familiar. One part of me thinks they came from someone else, but it’s possible that I now have a whole new (to amnesiac me) bunch of reading material. Talk about in one ear(eye?) and out the other!
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I just finished the nonfiction book The Carpool Detectives. I LOVED it! It was a real page-turner.
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Most books that I pass along I don’t want returned either. Now that I have 2 Little Libraries very close to my house I put many books in there for others to enjoy. The book club that D2 and have been going to since it started a year ago is doing a book swap for their anniversary. We will get rid of a few books here, but I’m sure we will bring other books home with us!
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Sadly my public library was told that their basement depository for their bookstore did not meet the fire code, so they aren’t taking donations for the foreseeable future. Just when I thought I could get rid of most of my architecture books! Too many and too esoteric for the little libraries. I have a friend who runs a library in another state that will probably take them, so I make take them to our next reunion if she’s interested.
I don’t buy a lot of books, but my Spanish bookclub often chooses books I can’t find in the library.
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Did anyone see the interview with the author of this month’s Read With Jenna book on the Today Show this morning? Fascinating. I look forward to reading his book.
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I just put that book on hold. It’s not yet received by the library.
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There’s a NY Times article about his story.
‘I Thought I Would Be Caged My Whole Life’
Doctors believed that Woody Brown would never be able to speak or process language. He went to graduate school and is publishing his debut novel.
no gift link, sorry!
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/books/review/woody-brown-upward-bound.html
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Thanks for posting . I have a NYT subscription, but had not seen that story. Interesting author, amazingly supportive mom (she went to college with him as communication aid).
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