A library card is still one of the best bargains in Britain. Join your local council service and you get free ebooks, e-audiobooks and digital magazines, delivered to a phone, tablet or laptop within minutes. The awkward part for Kindle owners is that most UK library loans will not appear on a Kindle e-reader at all. That is a limitation of the device, not a reason to abandon the idea. It helps to know which app your library uses, what each one can do, and how to fit a Kindle into the picture.

What a UK library card actually gets you

Nearly every council library service now runs a digital collection alongside its shelves. The titles come from a handful of suppliers, and which one your library picked decides almost everything about how you borrow and read.

What you can usually expect:

• Ebooks and e-audiobooks, borrowed for a set period, typically one to three weeks.
• Digital magazines, often with no loan limit and no waiting.
• Automatic returns, so there are no late fees on digital loans.
• A limited number of copies, which means popular titles carry waiting lists just like paper books.

The catalogue is smaller than a bookshop's, and bestsellers can take weeks to reach you. That is the trade-off for paying nothing.

Libby: the app behind most library ebook lending

Libby is the reading app for OverDrive, the service used by a large share of UK library authorities. The older OverDrive app has been retired, so if you last borrowed a library ebook a few years ago, Libby is where you now start.

Signing in takes a minute. You need your library card number and usually a PIN, both available from your library or its website. Some services let you add more than one library card to the same account, which is handy if you belong to two authorities.

Inside Libby you can browse, place holds, and read straight away in the app. There is also a browser version at libbyapp.com for anyone who prefers a laptop screen. Useful touches include:

• Notify Me. Tag a title your library does not own and it will suggest it to them.
• Deliver later. When a hold arrives at an inconvenient moment, delay it rather than losing your place in the queue.
• Adjustable text. Change font, size, spacing and background, including a dark setting for night reading.
• Audiobook controls. Speed adjustment and a sleep timer, which make the app a serious alternative to paid audio subscriptions.

What Libby will not do in the UK

Libby's "Read with Kindle" option exists, but it is effectively limited to borrowers using US Amazon accounts. UK library users do not get that button. Everything you borrow sits inside Libby or your browser, and there is no official way to push a loan onto a Kindle e-reader.

BorrowBox, cloudLibrary and the others

BorrowBox, run by Bolinda, is the other big name in UK library lending and is used by many councils, sometimes alongside Libby rather than instead of it. It works much the same way: an app for phones and tablets, a web player for some titles, and a strong audiobook collection that many borrowers prefer to Libby's.

A smaller number of authorities use cloudLibrary or a home-grown platform. Whichever it is, the pattern holds. You borrow through an app or a browser, and the loan lives there until it expires.

Why a Kindle e-reader cannot read library loans

There are two separate obstacles, and both matter.

First, a Kindle e-reader only runs software Amazon approves. You cannot install the Libby or BorrowBox app on it, the way you would on a phone. Second, library ebooks arrive wrapped in copy protection, usually Adobe DRM or Readium LCP. Kindle devices do not read those formats, and converting a protected file is neither legal nor necessary. Stripping DRM to move a loan across is a breach of the licence you agreed to when you borrowed it.

One thing that does work: DRM-free EPUB files can be sent to a modern Kindle using Send to Kindle. Your library loans are not in that category, but plenty of free public-domain books are, which matters later on.

Kindle Fire tablets are a grey area. They run a version of Android, and some readers manage to sideload the Libby app, but it is not an officially supported route and results vary by model and software version.

Ways to read library loans that genuinely work

If the goal is free reading rather than Kindle reading, there is no shortage of options.

• Your phone. The Libby and BorrowBox apps are well built, and a phone in night mode is a perfectly good reading device.
• A tablet. An older iPad or Android tablet makes a comfortable library reader for illustrated titles and magazines.
• A laptop or desktop. The browser versions of both services handle borrowing and reading, though the experience is less elegant.
• A Kobo e-reader. Kobo devices include OverDrive and Libby support in several countries, including the UK. Check that your library is on OverDrive before buying one for this purpose.
• An Android e-ink device. These run full Android, so the library apps install normally. They cost more than a basic Kindle.

Many households settle on a simple split: a Kindle for bought books and a phone for library loans. It is less tidy than one device doing everything, but it costs nothing extra.

If you would rather stay on your Kindle

You can still read a great deal for free without touching a library app. Free and cheap routes worth knowing about include:

1. Public-domain classics. Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks offer thousands of titles as clean, DRM-free EPUB files. Send them to your Kindle and they arrive like any purchased book.
2. Prime Reading. If you have Amazon Prime, a rotating selection of ebooks is included at no extra cost.
3. Kindle Unlimited. A paid subscription rather than a free service, but worth mentioning if you read several books a month.
4. Monthly deals. Amazon's Kindle monthly deals regularly drop popular titles to low prices, and wishlists make it easy to wait for a discount.
5. Borrow the paperback. Obvious, but often forgotten. The library still lends physical books, and they work with any reader.

A practical way to start this week

Find your council's library website and look for the digital or "e-library" section. That page will tell you whether your service uses Libby, BorrowBox or both, and how to join online. Many authorities let you register without visiting a branch, though most ask for proof of address before your card becomes active.

Install the relevant app, log in, and set the filter to show only titles available now. Borrow something short and familiar so you can judge the reading experience without committing to a long novel. Then place two or three holds on things you actually want, and check the audiobook side of the catalogue while you are there. It is free, it takes an evening to set up, and it will quietly save you a great deal over a year.

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