This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
Every few months I do the subscription audit everyone recommends. Streaming services, an audiobook plan, a news app, a magazine I meant to read. And every time, I notice the same thing: the best-value subscription I have doesn’t cost anything, and most people I know don’t use it.
It’s a library card.
The Library Moved Into Your Phone
If your picture of the library is a quiet building with limited hours, you’re missing most of what it does now. Through the Libby app, a library card gets you ebooks, audiobooks and magazines that you can stream or download to your phone, tablet or computer. Libby’s own help page spells out the deal: no subscription, no in-app purchases and no late fees. Titles simply return themselves on the due date.
Many libraries also offer Kanopy, a film-streaming service, alongside it. Which services you get depends on your library, but it’s worth checking what yours has.
People Are Noticing
This isn’t a niche habit. OverDrive, the company behind Libby, says libraries and schools lent out 820.5 million digital titles through its apps in 2025, up 10% from the year before. Audiobook checkouts rose 13% to nearly 316 million. Digital magazines jumped 31%. On Kanopy, library users streamed more than a billion minutes of film.
Those numbers say a lot of people have already worked this out. They also suggest a lot of us are paying separately for things we could borrow.
The Honest Downsides
I’ll be fair about the trade-offs. Popular new releases often have waitlists, sometimes long ones. Your library decides what it buys, how long loans last and how many titles you can borrow at once, so the selection varies a lot from town to town. And if you want to keep a book forever, borrowing isn’t owning.
Libby also covers only digital titles, so physical books, DVDs and anything else on the shelves still means a trip to the building. I count that as a perk rather than a flaw. The building is often the nicest free indoor space in town, and you rarely leave empty-handed.
But think about how you actually use your paid services. How many of those audiobook credits do you spend on books you listen to once? How many magazine subscriptions do you skim on a plane and forget? For a lot of that, a short wait is a small price.
How to Get Started
Getting set up takes about 10 minutes:
- Get a card from your local public library. Ask at the front desk or check the library’s website to see what you need to sign up.
- Install Libby. According to Libby’s help pages, it runs on iPhones, Android phones and newer Amazon Fire tablets, and in a web browser at libbyapp.com on Windows, Mac or Chromebook.
- Add your library and sign in with your card number.
- Search for something you were about to buy, borrow it if it’s available or place a hold if it isn’t, and read or listen in the app.
A tip from experience: put holds on a few popular titles at once. They tend to arrive at staggered times, which means you’ll rarely be left with nothing to read. And if a book you love has a long wait, the shelf of things available right now is often a better surprise than you’d expect. I’ve found more than one favorite author that way, simply because their book happened to be ready.
Use It, or Risk Losing It
There’s a bigger reason to use the library than saving money. Public libraries are paid for with public money, and when budgets get tight, I find it hard to believe that how much people use them doesn’t matter. I think of every loan as a small vote for keeping the place open. A library card sitting unused in a wallet doesn’t say much.
So here’s my modest proposal for your next subscription audit. Before you cancel or renew anything, get a library card, download Libby and spend a week seeing what you can borrow. And if anyone tells you an audiobook from the library isn’t “real” reading, I’ve already made that argument.
You might find you’re paying for less than you thought you needed.
More on Contoh
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