Love to Review Books? Then Here’s a Great Site for You!

By Kayla Bolton

NetGalley is a digital service that supplies advanced review copies to librarians and other professionals within the book community to read and provide feedback.  It is very easy to sign up, and many requests are approved if you mark yourself as a librarian during registration. Look through and request items from a variety of genres, then wait a few days (or weeks for popular titles) to receive an email stating whether your request was approved. Once accepted, you can then read the title on your computer or send it to a variety of different devices. In my experience, Kindle is the easiest format to manage. You can also download the Kindle app for free on your smartphone or tablet. One thing to keep in mind is that NetGalley expects you to read and provide a review for the titles on their website within a period of time, so sticking to a small number of titles for a certain duration is best.

Free Audiobooks for Librarians!

Libro.fm, on the other hand, provides free digital audiobook copies for librarians without any review requirements. Their Librarian Audiobook Listening Copies are rotated from month to month, with around thirty titles in a large variety of genres. Some of these are upcoming releases, while others may be recent bestsellers. Libro.fm is also big supporter of independent bookstores, which means that when you sign up for your account you can choose an indie of your choice to represent. For any other items that you might purchase, a portion of those profits go to that store. Once you receive an audiobook, you can either listen to it on your computer or on their app. Thanks to these services, we can provide better reader’s advisory to our patrons—and enjoy a good read for ourselves!

Follow the links below to get started:

NetGalley Registration Link: https://www.netgalley.com/auth/register

Libro.fm Librarian Audiobook Listening Copies Registration Link: https://libro.fm/alc-program