Digital Collection

Need a library card? If you live in the City of Hastings, Hastings Charter Township or Rutland Charter Township, sign up online. If you are outside our core service area, here is information on our Non-Resident program.

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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:

Anyone in Michigan 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 a reading app for borrowing eBooks, audiobooks and magazines from the OverDrive digital collection. This free app is available for Android, iOS and Windows 10 devices. The older OverDrive app has been phased out as of May 2023.

By default, as an HPL patron you have access to the MCLS collection. There are ten additional OverDrive collections available that can be switched between in the app (updated May 2024):

Download Destination
Great Lakes Digital Libraries
Lakeland Library Cooperative
Metro Net Library Consortium
Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative
Suburban Cooperative
Traverse Area District Library
Up North Michigan Consortium
White Pine Library Cooperative
Woodlands Library Cooperative

How to Connect to Other Library Collections in Libby

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:

Newspapers and Magazines

Newspapers

Go to the Barry County History Portal to read past issues of The Banner, The Nashville News, Sun & News and a few other random papers that have been digitized.

The Library also has physical and microfilm copies of local papers for use in the building upon request, but online usage is preferred where available. 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