More Free Stuff!

While we love good, old-fashioned paper books, many of us also enjoy the convenience and instant availability of downloaded e-books and especially audio books.

We've offered e-books and downloadable audiobooks FREE for patrons to use for many years. In 2020, our library district switched from using the Overdrive/Libby eBook system to cloudLibrary. While some people preferred using the Libby app, cloudLibrary offers thousands more titles, providing a lot more "bang for the buck," as they say. While our collections are free for you to use, e-books are expensive for libraries.

Now there is more free stuff for you to access! This year, changes at our District Library System are providing cardholders at our library with the opportunity to access even more FREE-to-use online material than ever before. However, change is never without a few hiccups, and always requires some adjustments.

Many of you have used our Johnstown District Libraries cloudLibrary collection of eBooks and audiobooks for some time, and magazines from cloudLibrary NewsStand via our Somerset County Federated Library System.

In January, our District Library System added movies, magazines, and comics to the District-wide cloudLibrary account. This added movies and comics to our offerings, and provided magazines from the District level, so our county system no longer has that expense.

This has changed the way we access magazines.

For those who access materials on their phones and tablets, we no longer use the cloudLibrary NewsStand app. The magazines are part of the cloudLibrary app now. However, some long-time cloudLibrary users have had problems accessing the magazine and movie sections on their app. In some cases, simply uninstalling and reinstalling the cloudLibrary app has fixed the problem. To access the comic books and manga that are part of our cloudLibrary collection, you need to download and use the Library Pass app.

Note: Users of Kindle Fire must go to their device settings and select "Allow 3d party apps." Users of Kindle Paperwhite cannot use the app, and need to access cloudLibrary materials via the web-based platform.

To access materials via the web-based platform,

• books & ebooks, go to yourcloudlibrary.com

• movies & tv shows, go to yourcloudlibrary.com

• magazines, go to cloudlibrary.magzter.com

• comic books & manga, go to login.librarypass.com

Whether you use an app or go directly to the website, the library name you search for is Johnstown District Libraries EXCEPT for the comics/manga, which is under Somerset County Library, PA. (That's kind of confusing, but that's how the company has it set up.)

Have I lost you? Here's a chart that I think is helpful:

Also, feel free to call with questions, and we'll do our best to help you or refer you to someone who can.

Don't forget, you can access even more online materials through PA POWER Library, provided by our Office of Commonwealth Libraries. You'll likely be surprised by all the things you can find there! More e-books, newspapers, and guides to car repair & small engine repair are just a few of the offerings.