Do you or your child have a library card?
Many folks don’t realize how amazing that little (free) card truly is. A San Francisco Public Library card opens the door to a world of information and entertainment.
In addition to borrowing books, LPs, and museum passes, your card allows you to download digital media, use electronic databases, take online classes, use library computers, and more.
Check out all of the greatness you can access:
Audio Books (for kids and adults)
Libby - Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more from your local library for free!
Read across devices: All your loans, notes, bookmarks, and reading progress sync across your devices.
Offline access - Download ebooks and audiobooks for offline reading, or stream them to save space.
Listen in your car - Enjoy audiobooks in your car through Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, or a Bluetooth connection.
Send to Kindle - If you prefer reading on your Kindle, Libby can send your library books to it. (U.S. libraries only)
Hoopla - hoopla allows you to borrow movies, music, audiobooks, ebooks, comics and TV shows to enjoy on your computer, tablet, or phone – and even your TV! Titles can be streamed immediately, or downloaded to phones or tablets for offline enjoyment later. They have hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from, with more being added daily. hoopla is like having your public library at your fingertips. Anytime. Anywhere.
Overdrive - Enjoy ebooks and audiobooks for free. Ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and more are available for free through your local library or school
Passes for local activities
Discover and Go - It’s literally one of the Bay Area’s best kept secrets: an incredible freebie under the radar to many, but one that will completely change your cultural life. The program is called Discover & Go, and it gets you and your kids in free to some of our most popular museums and attractions for zero dollars.
Passes are released midnight of 1st of every month, two months in advance. On July 1 midnight- they released passes for September. Some of the more popular and expensive museum passes “sell out” within few hours of release.
Pro tip: Set an alarm to grab the passes for the hot locations.
Some of the places we have successfully used Discover & Go free passes include, the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, the Pacific Pinball Museum, the Botanical Garden at UC Berkeley, and USS Hornet Museum in Alameda. You can also get a free day pass to the Oakland Museum of California, Children’s Creativity Museum, Conservatory of Flowers, Lindsay Wildlife Experience, and so many more! Some favorites like the Cal Academy of Sciences and the Lawrence Hall of Science are not available right now due to Covid-19 limitations, but keep checking back since venues continue to expand capacity limitations.
Movies & Online Courses
Kanopy - Be entertained and be enriched. Kanopy is a video-streaming platform dedicated to thoughtful and thought-provoking films. and courses. Founded in 2008, Kanopy was established to provide academic institutions with essential films that foster learning and conversation. In 2016, Kanopy expanded its services to public libraries and now delivers a diverse collection of 30,000+ enriching films, available to stream anytime and anywhere — from desktop to TV to tablet.
eMagazines
Flipster Digital Magazines: Stream or download popular digital magazines.
eLearning
Lynda.com: Online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology, and creative skills.
Android | iOSMango: 64 different languages and 18 different ESL courses to choose from.
Android | iOS | Kindle | NookRosetta Stone: Immersive language-learning platform, offering 30 languages to further ESL learning and language-learning.
Rosetta Stone Help (PDF)Treehouse: Videos, projects and quizzes on design of websites and mobile apps, coding languages, and basic computing
The library also has specific collections such as Parenting & Home, Personal Finance, and Gardening and Agriculture.
Check out the SFPL Explorer Map with recommendations of spots to explore neighborhood-by-neighborhood.
