We’ve recently heard about a great browser extension that we wanted to share with you all. It comes from Sonja and Yvonne at the Albury City Library.
Library Extension checks the online catalog of the user’s local library for the book or e-book the user is browsing for and displays it on the same page.
Some of the websites that the extension works on are amazon.com, audible.com, bookdepository.com, goodreads.com and librarythings.com. So, if the extension installed, whenever someone searches on one of these sites, they will see the availability of the book at their local library.
As people become more concerned about the clutter and the number of books they own, this seems like a wonderful idea. You can catch them before they make a book purchase and direct them to borrow from your library instead.
The Albury City Library have included it in the ‘What’s New’ section at the bottom of their courtesy reminder and overdue notice emails. They’ve also included instructions on how to use it. They envisage that customers would use it on their personal devices and are thinking of including it on the OPACs as well. According to their reporting it seems to be popular, as the link is getting many clicks in a day.
Thanks to Sonja, Yvonne and the team at the Albury City Library for this great tip.