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eBooks & eAudiobooks

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CloudLibrary™ Issues

Monday, April 27: 
The CloudLibrary issue has been resolved. Submit a Digital Resource Help request if you continue to have problems.

About CloudLibrary™

cloudLibrary icon

cloudLibrary is the Carrollton Public Library's primary eBook and eAudiobook service.

The first time you sign in to the app with your Library card, your CloudLibrary™ account is created. Get access to titles licensed by the Library plus many thousands more provided by partners in our Texas CloudLink lending group.

Read or listen in an installed app or using the CloudLibrary™ web app. the web app allows you to browse, borrow, and then read eBooks or stream eAudiobooks in your browser.

Eligibility

Access CloudLibrary™ with your valid, non-expired, eligible Library card owing less than $10 if you are a:

  • Carrollton (resident) cardholder
  • Paid Non-Resident cardholder
  • School Staff cardholder

Borrowing Periods & Limits

Borrow and Hold Periods

  • Loan Period: 14 days
  • Hold Period: 3 days

Titles can be returned early.

Borrow and Hold Limits:

  • Borrow Limit 4 titles
  • Hold Limit: 10

Available Holds & Borrowing Limit

Holds available to check out count against the number of titles you can borrow. Each available hold will take up an available "spot" for borrowing.

Example Scenario

  • 3 titles borrowed leaving 1 open "spot".
  • A hold becomes available.
  • The ONLY title you can borrow is that available hold title until
    • The hold expires*
      OR
    • You return one of the 3 items

*There is no way to cancel an available hold.

Supported Devices

Device List

*CloudLibrary™ eBooks are not currently supported by Amazon on dedicated Kindle eReaders which use a proprietary format instead of the standard EPUB.

Number of Devices

Six (6) devices may be authenticated with your card number. Logging out does NOT deauthorize a device.

Got the Adobe Device Activation Failure due to too many activations error?


Getting Started 

Accessing CloudLibrary™ is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

  1. Download the app or access the web app using a link below.
  2. Log in to Carrollton Public Library in the app.
  3. Browse, borrow, and read or listen!

Help & Errors

Help from Library

Help Pages from CloudLibrary™

Navigating the App

Search

Search Box

Perform simple keyword or advanced search.

Filters

Tap/click funnel icon to limit search or browse by format, availability, and language.

Featured

See shelves of titles curated by Library staff.

Favorites

Use pencil icon to add favorite categories to browse.

All

Find and browse all categories and subcategories.

My Books

Current

See, read or listen, and return current checkouts,

History

See previously borrowed titles.

Holds

See, manage, and borrow holds.

Saved

See, manage, and borrow titles you saved for later.

Account

Cards

Add and switch between cards.

Notifications

Turn on app and email notifications and add or change email.

Help and Support

Use Library Support link to provide information needed for fastest help from the Library or Tutorials and FAQ's link to see CloudLibrary™ support pages.

About

Get app version needed when requesting help.

Holds

Hold Notifications

  • If you allow it, the app can notify you when a hold is ready.
  • You can provide an email address to receive an email notice when a hold is ready.

Checking Out Your Hold

  • An available hold shows in the Holds section of My Books.
  • You must tap/click Borrow button within the 3-day hold period, or title will disappear from the Holds section of My Books and go to the next person if there is a holds queue.

Cancel Hold

  1. Tap/click Manage Hold button.
    Manage Hold button example
  2. Tap/click Remove Hold button.
    Remove Hold button example
  3. Tap/click OK to confirm you want to remove hold.

Important Note: You can only cancel a hold if it is not yet available to borrow.

Delay When Receive a Hold

To delay when you receive a cloudLibrary hold you suspend it.

  1. Tap/click Manage Hold button.
    Manage Hold button example
  2. Use the calendar to select the earliest date you want to receive the hold, then tap/click Suspend Hold button.
    example of calendar to select date and Suspend Hold button
  3. A hold that is suspended will show the suspension date on the title information screen seen when you tap/click the cover.
    hold suspension date example

Note: You may get a hold earlier than the suspension date if it becomes available and no one else is waiting.

Update Hold Delivery Date

If you no longer want a hold suspended:

  1. Tap/click Manage Hold button.
    Manage Hold button example
  2. Select the most recent date in the calendar then tap/click Suspend Hold button.

See Approximate Availability of Your Hold

Availability date for a hold is an ESTIMATE and may change.

Approximate availability may show directly in the Holds list of your app, but if not there, it is always available on the title information screen seen when you tap/click the cover.
approximate hold availability date example

CloudLink Lending Group

Carrollton Public Library partnered with a group of other Texas libraries on June 1, 2017 to loan eBooks and eAudiobooks to each other's library cardholders. This kind of CloudLibrary™ lending group is called CloudLink.

There are almost 300.000 copies of eBooks and eAudiobooks available in our CloudLink lending group and around 40-45% of titles borrowed by Carrollton customers are provided through this lending group.

Titles owned by partner libraries, but not in use by the owning library's cardholders, are visible in the CloudLibrary™ app and available to borrow by cardholders of ANY libraries in the lending group.

When a cardholder from the owning library borrows a title, then that title is no longer visible in the app to customers from other libraries in the lending group.

This partnership gives you, our eBook readers, access to many thousands of titles that we did not buy. A wider selection means more of you will find something you like.

If you did not find an eBook or eAudiobook in the catalog, try searching for it in the CloudLibrary™ app, including the cloudLibrary™ web app. You may find it appears thanks to one of our library partners.

Vanishing eBooks

You saw a title that you wanted to read or listen to, but the next time to you search, it's gone!

There are a couple of reasons why an eBook or eAudiobook might "disappear" from CloudLibrary™:

Publisher Restrictions

Most publishers restrict library access to titles they purchased to either allow only a certain number of checkouts or to only allow checkouts for a one or two-year period of time. After that, the eBook or eAudibook "disappears" according to the publisher's rule.

The Library has a limited budget to spend on eBooks and eAudiobooks and focuses on purchasing licenses for newer titles.

Check our streaming media service, hoopla, for older titles you no longer see in CloudLibrary™.

CloudLink titles

The title is from one of our CloudLink Lending Group partners and has been borrowed by a customer of the owning library. Once a borrowed CloudLink item is returned and available to borrow, it "reappears" for Carrollton customers in all cloudLibrary apps.

A vanished title borrowed by you before will show in your History with a Suggest* button instead of Borrow or Hold. Watch for that button to change to Borrow.

*CloudLibrary™'s Suggest feature is not used by us.

Carrollton resident cardholders may submit the Suggest a Library Purchase form to suggest 3 titles a month.

You can try searching again in a few weeks for a title that disappeared, in case it was just checked out by someone at its owning library, or you can fill out the Digital Resource Help form to ask Library staff about it.

eBook FAQ

Are All Books Available as eBooks?

No. Some print books may never appear as eBooks; some titles are only published as eBooks and never as print books. Also, some eBooks and eAudiobooks are not available for purchase by libraries.

Aren't eBooks Cheaper Than Printed Books?

For you, the consumer, they often will be, but not for libraries. The Library can usually buy a printed book for a fraction of the cost of the same title as an eBook.

The price you see for an eBook is NOT the same price a library must pay. This is because the publisher expects to get a higher price for an eBook or eAudiobook that we will lend out many times.

In addition, most publishers have restrictions on the number of times or how long an item is available for you to borrow, before the title license expires and is no longer available for the Library to lend to you.