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Announcing the 2025 Libby Book Award Winners!

A red carpet that stretches through the picture. Golden stands with rope on either side of the carpet. A sigil with "The Libby Book Awards" and the Libby Logo - a girl reading a book - are in the very middle of the picture.

If you’re a frequent user of Overdrive or Libby and you’re looking for your next read, why not try one of the Libby Book Award winners?  Libby announced the finalists for this award back in February with the winners being selected just this week!  

The winners are…

  • Fiction Book of the Year:  The Women by Kristin Hannah
  • Nonfiction Book of the Year:  The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
  • Young Adult Fiction Book of the Year:  Heir by Sabaa Tahir
  • Audiobook of the Year:  The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
  • Debut Author of the Year:  The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
  • Best Book Club Book:  Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
  • Best Business Book:  When We Are Seen by Denise Young
  • Best Comic/Graphic Novel:  Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls
  • Best Cookbook:  Anything’s Pastable by Dan Pashman
  • Best Fantasy:  The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
  • Best Historical Fiction:  James by Percival Everett
  • Best Horror:  Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
  • Best Memoir & Autobiography:  Knife by Salman Rushdie
  • Best Middle Grade Book:  Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
  • Best Mystery:  We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
  • Best Picture Book:  Little Shrew by Akiko Miyakoshi
  • Best Romance:  Funny Story by Emily Henry
  • Best Romantasy:  House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
  • Best Science Fiction:  The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
  • Best Thriller:  One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon

You can view all of the Libby Book Award winners and finalists in our Overdrive collection here or in the Libby app here.  (If you’re on your device using the Libby app, just scroll down on the SAILS main page until you see the Libby Book Awards curated collection!)

And watch the official winner video on Libby’s YouTube page:

Find New Books to Fall in Love with This February

An open book on a desk with a blurred background. The SAILS Library Network logo is in the top left. Text on the image reads "Find a new read you'll love..."

Are you stuck in a reading slump?  Maybe you just finished your last five-star read and are now looking for another?  Our online catalog – Enterprise – has a really cool feature called “Of Interest to Readers,” which allows you to seek out read-alikes with just a few clicks!

Using this feature is easy!

First, head on over to our online catalog.  Use the drop down at the top of our main page – sailsinc.org – to select your home library’s Enterprise page. (Or simply scroll up to the top of this article once you’re done reading to access the dropdown menu!)

Next, type in the title of that last book you fell in love with.  Enterprise will pull up a list of results – some physical materials and some digital downloads.  The “Of Interest to Readers” tab only appears on a listing for a physical material, so use the tabs at the top of the results or the filters off to the side to navigate to a physical material listing for your title.

An image of the tabs you might see when you look up a book in Enterprise.

Once you have the item entry pulled up, you should see the tab “Of Interest to Readers.”  Click on it.

Example of the "Of Interest to Readers" tab in Enterprise, featuring the book Divine Rivals.

The “Of Interest to Readers” tab features a range of information that can include:

  • Information about the book and/or series
  • More books by the author
  • Read-alikes with active links to their listings in our catalog
  • Librarian lists where this book appears
  • Professional reviews and book awards
  • Tags with active links that will pull up more books to browse

We hope this feature introduces you to new books you can fall in love with this February!  We encourage you to reach out to your local library for more assistance with this feature if you need it.

Coming Soon! – SAILS Mobile App is Getting an Update

A phone screen with the SAILS logo - an open book and a sail - with a LOADING bar half full underneath.

Exciting things are happening this year at SAILS, starting with a new installment of our SAILS Mobile App coming soon!  While we don’t have a specific date just yet, we can tell you about some of the new and improved features you’ll have access to:

  • Better searching.  Browse the full catalog, perform keyword searches, and more.
  • Easier login.  Now you’ll be able to set up your app to login with your fingerprint or facial recognition, depending on your device.
  • Improved location mapping.  See which SAILS library is nearest you at any given time in the app.
  • Accessible account management.  Manage your holds, fines and fees, and checked out materials with easier functionality.

We hope you’re as excited about this next chapter as we are!  Look out for more information soon.

Partner Libraries in Overdrive and Libby

Browse digital collections across the Commonwealth with this feature available to you with a SAILS Library Network card.

Cold weather is the perfect time to curl up with a good book!

If you can’t make it out to your local library, you can borrow e-books and e-audiobooks from Overdrive (https://sails.overdrive.com/) and through Libby either online (https://libbyapp.com/library/sails) or by downloading the app to your device.

Actually, did you know that your SAILS Library Network card allows you to checkout material on Overdrive and Libby at libraries across the Commonwealth?  Overdrive and Libby refer to this as Partner Libraries.  Partner Libraries are Massachusetts library networks that have agreed to share their digital collections with each other.  So, even if you are snowed in on the South Shore, you can browse and check out items from libraries across the state from the comfort of your couch!

Using the Partner Libraries feature differs depending on whether you’re an Overdrive or Libby user.  We recently updated our Overdrive/Libby Help page with tutorials on how to add and use Partner Libraries.  

If you’re an Overdrive user, click this link for more information.
If you’re a Libby user, click this link for more information.

And this link will take you to instructions on how to search and place holds at Partner Libraries.

Happy reading!

Empowered by Libraries

Banner with Empowered by Libraries logo and featured images.

Patrons love so much about their libraries — events, books, movies, ebooks, and most of all their library staff! Libraries across the Commonwealth are providing critical services to communities and empowering their patrons every day. This year, the MBLC is encouraging libraries in Massachusetts to invite their patrons to share their story of how the library has helped them.

Do you have a fun anecdote about a visit to one of our SAILS member libraries that inspired you? Or maybe one of our libraries provided you with a service at a time of great need? Or is there a staff member at one of the libraries who has helped you in some way that you’d like to shoutout? MBLC’s “Empowered by Libraries” campaign is a great way to tell the Commonwealth how libraries have impacted your life!

Visit Lovemasslibraries.com to share your story. You can upload pictures, a note, or even a video! The upload form will allow you to choose your library. You can also visit the page to see other inspiring stories, photos, and notes from across the Commonwealth.

If you frequent social media, feel free to post your story there using the hashtags #LoveMassLibraries, #EmpoweredByLibraries, and #EmpoweredByMassLibraries. And don’t forget to tag your library so they can reshare!

Say Goodbye to 2024 with a Top SAILS Title!

Want to find that last read to wrap up 2024?  Why not choose something from our Top Titles of 2024?  SAILS has compiled a list of the top checkouts of the year across all our libraries, and you can browse the full list on our Enterprise e-catalog home page.

From mystery to historical to psychological suspense and romance, our top ten checkouts of the year have a little something for everyone. Here are the top ten titles SAILS Library Network patrons have been checking out this year (with summaries and links from our e-catalog):

#10 – First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes–especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to-her real identity-just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher–but then, Evie has always liked a challenge.

#9 – Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

#8 – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with, of all things, her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

#7 – A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants When two wealthy white landowners are found dead, the whole country immediately thinks it must be Jerome Washington, the hired help, who killed them. He was standing over the bodies when the police responded to an anonymous call and the only one on the property at the time of death. As far as the state is concerned, it’s an open and shut case. Jack Lee, born and raised in Freeman County, knows that every man deserves a solid defense and agrees to be Jerome’s lawyer, against everyone’s better judgement. But as the facts of the case unfold, it becomes more and more obvious to Jack that this trial isn’t about uncovering the truth and is instead a racially charged set up. And the whole town is calling for Jerome to receive the death penalty. Jack is soon ensnared in a system that’s doing everything it can to prevent him from saving Jerome’s life, and even he thinks all is lost. Then Desiree DuBose, a lawyer from up North with a social justice agenda, comes to town and quickly joins as co-council, blasting the case all over the news to gain support. But the citizens of Freeman County don’t want to wait for the final verdict and Jack and Desiree find themselves in the crosshairs. Jack will need to stop at nothing to prove that Jerome is innocent even at the risk of his own life… and his family’s.

#6 – The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But soon she finds out–and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself that the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. And they don’t know what I’m capable of.

#5 – The Teacher by Freida McFadden

A pariah at Caseham High School after having an inappropriate relationship with a teacher, Addie is desperate to keep the truth hidden, while Evie, horrified to find Addie in her class, is keeping something from her husband—and each will learn just how far someone will go to keep them silent.

#4 – The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie. Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.

#3 – The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

#2 – Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

Chief of Police Ed Kapenash is about to retire. Blond Sharon is going through a divorce. But when a 22-million-dollar summer home is purchased by the mysterious Richardsons—how did they make their money, exactly?—Ed, Sharon, and everyone in the community are swept up in high drama. The Richardsons throw lavish parties, flirt with multiple locals, flaunt their wealth with not one but two yachts, and raise impossible hopes of everyone they meet. When their house burns to the ground and their most essential employee goes missing, the entire island is up in arms. The last of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling Nantucket novels, SWAN SONG is a propulsive medley of glittering gatherings, sun-soaked drama, wisdom and heart, featuring the return of some of her most beloved characters, including, most importantly, the beautiful and timeless island of Nantucket itself.

#1 – The Women by Kristin Hannah

When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

World Languages Collection in Overdrive

We are excited to announce that we have made titles available to borrow on Libby and OverDrive platforms in seven languages in addition to English and Portuguese! You can find them all here: https://sails.overdrive.com/library/world-languages or here: https://libbyapp.com/library/sails/guide/world-languages

We have made sure to modify our curated collections to reflect English titles so as not to overwhelm them with the new content. However, if you are used to searching in Libby or OverDrive simply by browsing “ebook” or “audiobook” for example, and you do not want titles in languages other than English to show up in your results, you will need to modify your preferences. If you are using the Libby app, this is a one time change that will prevent any content other than English from showing up for them. Here’s how: 

  1. Search for anything in the search bar.Select Preferences
  2. On the results page you will see a circle with a + next to “Preferences”. Click on it.
  3. The options for all of the different preferences will pop up.
  4. Click on language.
  5. Select English.
  6. Make sure to click “Apply Preferences” or it won’t save.
  7. Search again and notice the number in a white circle next to the word “Preferences”. That means you have successfully saved that preference (in addition to any other preferences you may have already saved).

In the OverDrive app, you will need to make this change each time you search. Here’s how:

  1. Click on the search bar.
  2. Underneath the search bar an “Advanced” option will appear. Click on it.
  3. In the Advanced Search screen, scroll down to the language menu.
  4. Under languages, select “English” and then “done”.
  5. This search will only return titles in English.
  6. To confirm this or to view another way to filter searches you can see a drop down menu labeled “Filters”. This will include the language filter and should show you anything you have set as a filter for your search.

Subject to Search

 

 

 

 

We added a new way to find items at SAILS libraries. You can now click on the icon at the top of the Enterprise catalog (pictured above) and search by subject keywords. This will give an alphabetical list of subject headings and show how many titles in the system match your search. Give it a try!

Automatic Renewals


The following libraries in the network began an autorenewal process today:
Attleboro, Acushnet, Berkley, Bridgewater, Carver, Dartmouth (both locations), Dighton, Easton, East Bridgewater, East Freetown (both locations), Fairhaven, Fall River (both locations), Foxboro (Boyden), Halifax, Hanson, Lakeville, Mansfield, Mattapoisett, Middleborough, New Bedford (all sites), North Attleboro, Norfolk, Norton, Pembroke, Plympton, Rehoboth, Rochester, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, Westport, and Wrentham.

Update: Marion and Wareham also now autorenew materials.

If you checked an item out at one of these libraries, any item that is eligible for renewal will be renewed 3 days before the due date and email/text notices will be sent alerting of that. If you normally receive Voice notification, you will not receive a call but your items should be renewed as well. You will then receive a reminder notice for any item due in 3 days that could not be renewed.

If your checkout library is not participating in the project, you will still receive reminder notices.

4 Frequently Asked Questions About Libby…Answered!

If you are reading with Libby, the answers to these FAQ’s will help you read more efficiently, manage your holds, and overall improve your reading happiness.

Find the answers to these questions...

HOW DO I RETURN A BOOK EARLY?

HOW DO I SEE MY PLACE IN LINE FOR A HOLD?

HOW CAN I VIEW MY BOOK PROGRESS?

HOW CAN I CHANGE THE TEXT OF AN EBOOK?

The post 4 Frequently Asked Questions About Libby…Answered appeared first on OverDrive Blogs.