Sign Up for Library Extension and You Can See the LPL's Book List while Shopping Amazon
by Keith Gatling | 5 years ago
If you’re still using Safari or Edge as your default web browser (and please don’t tell me that you’re still using Internet Explorer…even Microsoft doesn’t use that anymore), I might’ve just found something to make you seriously think about switching to Firefox or Chrome. It’s a new extension that lets you see what books, eBooks, audiobooks, and movies you might have thought about ordering from Amazon are available for free right here at LPL.
It’s called Library Extension, and as I mentioned earlier, at the moment it only works with Firefox and Chrome.
To get it, start by going to www.libraryextension.com. There you’ll see icons for you to install it in either Chrome or Firefox. That’s it. Don’t think you can be slick and try to install it in Safari or Edge. That’s just not going to happen.
Follow the instructions for installing it, and when you’re done, you should see a book icon (1) in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Click on that, and you’ll get a window for setting it up and telling it what library or libraries you want it to look through (2). Here I’ve selected United States, New York, and Liverpool Public Library. Once you’ve selected your library, click on the Add button, and you’re all set. This will now look through our collections for anything we own in physical form or digitally through OverDrive.
But wait! There’s more! Once you’ve done that, another little box shows up at the bottom of the window for you to add Hoopla results. Go on and do that too.
So now that you’ve installed this, how does it work? Amazingly easily! Just go to Amazon, look for an item, and then see what it says on the right-hand side of the screen (3). In the example here, I’ve looked for the book The Ebb Tide, and in addition to all the ways you can get it from Amazon, Library Extension shows you the ways you can get it from us. In this case we have unlimited copies available through Hoopla, 12 ink and paper copies available from the various libraries in the county, and one eBook copy available through OverDrive.
Just one little note here…if you’re looking for movies, only things we have available in Hoopla will show up. I’ve sent them a note asking why movies we own in the physical catalog don’t show up, and they haven’t gotten back to me yet.
But rather than me trying to tell you everything this lovely little browser extension does, I’m going to suggest that you download it yourself and take the time to play around with it a bit.
