Digital Collection

Need a library card? If you live in the City of Hastings, Hastings Charter Township or Rutland Charter Township, apply in one of two ways:

Download our mobile app and apply for full access to the physical and Digital Collection.
Fill out the Library Card Request Form for limited access to the Digital Collection.
- This card is active for two weeks allowing time to come to the Library with ID to pick up the physical card and activate all services.

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The Hastings Public Library offers multiple digital services in addition to all of the physical items available. Each of the below services offer unique titles across eBooks, audiobooks and more with minimal overlap of content.

All patrons holding a regular or non-resident library card from our library have access to all of these services at no charge.

Notes:

All patrons can access eBooks from MeL

EBSCO eBooks

Over 20,000 eBooks provided through MeL are available to any Michigan resident.

Libby powered by OverDrive

Libby is used to access the OverDrive digital collection. The older OverDrive app is being phased out as of February 2022 so we recommend only using Libby now.

Note: there are also four overdrive collections available that can be switched between in the apps. Look through the Lakeland Library Cooperative, Suburban Cooperative, Great Lakes Digital Libraries and MCLS collections for titles.

Libby for Overdrive is a reading app for borrowing eBooks, audiobooks and magazines from the library’s OverDrive collection. This free app is available for Android, iOS and Windows 10 devices.

Using Libby

See the below links for the basics of using Libby and OverDrive:

Magazines on Libby

A big thank you to the Howard Miller Public Library in Zeeland, MI for these videos:

A Libby Magazine overview from OverDrive:

Hoopla

Hoopla Digital: Instantly borrow eBooks, audiobooks, comics, music, movies & TV – 24/7 and FREE with your library card. Six formats all in one app for a multimedia content experience!

Action View on comics.
Borrow recent FULL album releases from the most popular artists.
More playback speeds on audiobooks.
More fonts, formatting options, themes, and more on eBooks.
All content can be downloaded to enjoy offline and they now support downloading to an SD card.
Works on iOS, Android, Roku and other streaming platforms.

Note: Hoopla downloads are limited to four per month. Watch for occasional Bonus months with additional free downloads.

Using Hoopla

See the below links for creating an account and using Hoopla on various devices:

Newspapers and Magazines

Newspapers

The Library has physical copies of local papers The Reminder and The Hastings Banner for use in the building. We also have back issues in paper and electronic form, depending on the paper and the year. The Hastings Banner goes back to the mid 1800s! Call or stop in for more information.

Read The Reminder online at their website.

Look at newspapers across Michigan at the Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal.
Note some papers require payment to view.

Magazines

Physical copies of many popular magazines are available for use in the Library as well as checkout.

Additionally, thousands of magazines can be checked out and read in the Libby app from OverDrive described above.

The Michigan Electronic Library also offers access to hundreds of magazines available to read online as well as download in PDF format. Search the MasterFILE Complete database from EBSCO for magazine titles. A small sampling is below:

Arts