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Vancouver Island Regional Library’s new eXpress Reads: no holds, no waits on ebooks and audiobooks

It’s happy times for eBook and Audiobook readers at Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL).

It’s happy times for eBook and Audiobook readers at Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL).

With the launch of a new digital collection called eXpress Reads, anyone who uses OverDrive or Libby can now check out some of the library’s most popular titles — 225 in total — without any holds or waits.

“Our collections are in high demand and we recognize that customers can sometimes experience long waits for the chance to dig into popular titles,” says Emily Mathews, VIRL’s Divisional Manager of Collections and Support Services. “That’s why we’re so excited about eXpress Reads, because it means instant access to some of the hottest books in our collection.”

Examples of titles in the eXpress Reads collection include:

Becoming, Michelle Obama

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connelly

Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover

A Gentlemen in Moscow, Amor Towles

Harry Potter series, JK Rowling

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

Long Road to Mercy, David Baldacci

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, Melinda Gates

Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty

Past Tense, Lee Child

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari

The Reckoning, John Grisham

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris

Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver

Washington Black, Esi Edugyan

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Accessing eXpress Reads works like this: head to Overdrive or Libby (if using a mobile device). Look for the Heading “eXpress Reads”, browse currently available titles, and download them to your computer, phone, tablet, or eReader.

To the keep the eXpress Reads collection circulating freely, loans are seven days in length with a maximum of three items checked out at any time. For all other titles in the Overdrive/Libby collection, we have increased the number of holds and checkouts customers can place from five to 10 items.

Customers can start downloading ebooks and audiobooks from the eXpress Reads collection today.