OverDrive Magazines

Get your favourite magazines online for free with your ORL membership.  

Love Magazines? With over 3000 magazines to choose from, you can now get your favourite magazines in the ORL's OverDrive collection.  

No holds, no waiting – check out as many magazines as you like!

Watch Tutorial or follow the steps below to get started. 

Enjoying magazines on your browser

Checkout and read magazines on the internet browser of your computer, laptop, or mobile device. 

A mobile app is also available so that you can enjoy magazines on your smartphone or tablet. Jump down to Enjoying magazines on the Libby App.

 

Log in to the ORL’s OverDrive collection

Go to https://orl.overdrive.com

Select Sign in at the top right corner.

Enter your library card number (no spaces) and PIN code and select Sign In. You are ready to borrow magazines with just a couple of clicks!

Find Magazines

Click on Subjects and select Magazines to view genres.

OR

Enter the name of the magazine in the search box located at the top of the screen, then select the magnifying glass.

 

Borrow Magazines

Magazines are always available to borrow!

To read a sample of the magazine, see its description, or to find similar magazines you may like, select the 3-dot icon next to the title, or click on the cover image of the magazine.

To check out older issues of a magazine, click on its cover image then Select Another Issue and choose one from the expanded menu. 

Select Borrow to check-out the magazine. Change the lending period (7, 14, or 21 days) before selecting Borrow again in the pop-up window.

In the SUCCESS! window, click Select Read now in browser. The magazine will open in a new tab in your web browser ready to read.

Bookmark this tab or find the magazine again on your  Loans page under My account on the ORL’s OverDrive site.

Check out as many as you like! Magazines do not count toward the 10 title check out limit for digital books.

 

Reading option notes

When reading in the browser, article view is not available for magazines. It is only available on the Libby App.

Magazines borrowed on the browser cannot be downloaded for offline reading or transferred to eReaders.

 

Renewals

You can renew a magazine within 3 days of the end of its lending period. Since magazines are always available, you can also borrow the magazine again at any time.

 

Early Returns

Magazines are automatically removed from your library account on its due date. You can return them early, too:

Go to your Loans page found under My account on the ORL’s OverDrive site.

Select Return beneath the Magazine.

 

 

Enjoying magazines on the Libby App

Download the Libby App

Don’t already have the Libby App for downloading eBooks and Audiobooks?

Get the Libby App for free from your app store, available for:

  • iPads and iPhones running iOS 10.0 or newer
  • Android tablets and smartphones running Android 5.0 and newer

Note: The Libby app is not available to download for Windows devices. You can use Libby in your web browser at libbyapp.com and enjoy books and magazines online. 

 

Add your library card to the Libby App

When you first open the Libby App, follow the on screen prompts to add your library name, Okanagan Regional Library, and to add your library card number (no spaces), and your PIN. (Unsure of your PIN? Reset your PIN code online if your email address is associated with your library account).

After your information is entered, the ORL’s OverDrive collection will open in the Libby App. 

 

Find Magazines

When you open the Libby App, or when you tap the Library link at the bottom left of the app screen, you will see the ORL’s OverDrive collection.

tap the Search icon (Magnifying Glass) at the bottom of the screen and enter the title, author, or topic.   

To browse through collection, tap the Library icon (Library Card), then tap on a featured subject or list. 

You can also find magazines by browsing and filtering lists by format, using the advanced search option, or by setting an app-wide format preference .

Filtering lists and search results

After completing a search, tap [number] magazines at the top of a list or search results to see only magazines.

Advanced search

  • Tap the search icon, then tap the 3 vertical dots, to see advanced search options.
  • Select Format, then select Magazines then tap Search.

Setting list preferences

This option can be used if you only want to find and read magazines on the Libby App

  • Tap Preferences at the top of the results list list.
  • Change the Format option to Magazines.
  • Tap Apply Preferences.

 

Borrow Magazines

Magazines are always available to borrow! 

Tap on the cover image of the magazine if you want to see descriptions, samples, or older issues.   

Tap Borrow  or the blue rectangle to check-out the magazine. 

On the next screen, confirm or change your loan period. Tap the underlined loan period link and select the new loan period (7, 14, or 21 days - The loan period you choose will also be used for the next magazine or book you borrow). 

Tap Borrow! to confirm.

On the You have borrowed screen, you have three option you can choose

  • Open Magazine – Start reading right away! If you are on a Wi-Fi connection, the magazine will immediately download. Download completion is indicated by the checkmark icon found next to the cover image.
  • Keep Browsing – To find more magazines or digital books to borrow.
  • Go To Shelf – To view all of your current Loans and Holds. 

 

Get notified when new magazine issues are available

Use a Notify Me tag so the app can let your know when new issues of a magazine are available, here's how: 

  • Borrow a magazine you want to be notified about.
  • Tap Show Me How when asked if you want to be notified.
  • Tap Create A Notify Me Tag.
  • Name your tag, then tap Create.
  • The magazine you borrowed will be tagged automatically.

The Libby App will prompt you to add other magazines to this tag when you borrow or return them.

 

Download your Magazines

If you are on a Wi-Fi connection, your magazine gets downloaded to your Shelf (indicated by the Bookstack icon) immediately. Tap Open Magazine to start enjoying it right away. 

If your magazine has not already downloaded, you can do so from the Shelf screen:

  • Tap the Download icon (cloud and arrow) next to the magazine
  • In the box that appears, tap Download to confirm.   

Once the download is complete, tap Open in Libby and enjoy!

 

Read your Magazine Online 

If your magazine has a Download icon (cloud and arrow) next to it, that means it is not yet downloaded and you can read or listen to it over an internet connection (Wi-Fi recommended). 

This option is useful if you want to save space on your mobile device. Just tap the cover image to start reading!

 

Reading options

Opening individual articles

You can open individual articles and adjust text size and lighting settings for most magazines (these options may not be available for all magazines).

  • Tap the center of the screen.
  • Select Read The Article (or Articles) near the bottom of the screen.
  • If there are multiple articles on a page, select which one to read from the list.

Adjusting text size and lighting for articles

  • Close the article you are reading.
  • Tap the center of the screen.
  • Select Appearance button and update the appearance settings.
  • Re-open the article to see your changes.

Using the Zooming option

You can pinch in or out to change the zoom levels or tap on the center of the screen, then tap on the Zoom icon (a circle over the word zoom). 

Text to Speech options are currently unavailable 

The Libby App does not currently have text to speech functionality for magazines, though OverDrive is considering this feature for future development.

 

Renewals

You can renew a magazine within 3 days of the end of its lending period. Since magazines are always available, you can also borrow the magazine again at any time.

  • Open the Libby App.
  • Tap Shelf icon.
  • Tap Loans.
  • Tap Manage Loan.
  • Tap Renew Loan, then Renew to confirm. 

The item’s new loan period begins the day of the renewal.

 

Early Returns

Magazines are automatically removed from your library account on its due date. You can return them early, too:

  • Open the Libby App.
  • Tap Shelf icon.
  • Tap Loans.
  • Tap Manage Loan.
  • Tap Return Early, then Return to confirm. 

 


Need Further Help?

Check out the following help sites provided by OverDrive

Reading Magazines on the Libby App

Reading Magazines on your browser

 

Get in touch with the ORL

Call us at 1-844-649-8127.

Email help@orl.bc.ca, in your email, please include:

  • any error message you’ve received
  • your ORL library card number
  • the magazine you are trying to view
  • the type of device you are using (e.g. tablet, smartphone, PC or Mac)
  • the type of web browser you are using (e.g., Edge, Chrome, Firefox)
  • indicate you are using OverDrive Magazines

Note: If your ORL card has expired or you have outstanding late fees of $20.00 or more, you'll be unable to borrow from this collection. You can pay fees online. To renew an expired card, call your library branch

eLibrary