MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Non-Resident Library Cards

haertig · 07-30-2022, 09:12 PM

COLORADO RESIDENTS
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It was probably meant for this thread to be national, or even international, but taking things down to the state level ...

If you live in COLORADO, the following libraries will issue you their library card for free:

Denver Library
Arapahoe County Library
Jefferson County Library
Anythink Library (a.k.a. Rangeview Library)
High Plains Library
Front Range Library
Across Colorado Library
Douglas County Library
Poudre River Library

There may well be more, and probably are, but these are the ones I know of (because I am a member of all of them). The general practice is you can sign up online and get a temporary member number good for a few months. You can check out eBooks with this temporary member number. Eventually you need to physically go to one of each library's branches with an Colorado ID to get a permanent card. From then on you can check out all the eBooks you want. I've never had any of these libraries age-out and cancel my account, and I've been using them for many years.

The above are all Denver metro area libraries. Except for Poudre, which is up in Ft. Collins (a little over an hours drive away). The Across Colorado library is the farthest from me, and I called them and asked if they would mail me a permanent member card instead, based on my word that I was indeed a Colorado resident. They happily did. I guess giving them a home address in Colorado to mail the card to was enough proof that I lived in Colorado. I did not ask any of the other libraries to do this - I just made a road trip all over the Denver metro area one day and hit all the libraries one after the other. I carried a copy of my water bill, which shows my name and address, because many websites said that would be required as additional proof of residency. However, not a single library asked for it. My drivers license was all they wanted to see.

I never made it to the Denver library as required (rush hour traffic during my little road trip nuked that planned stop). So I expected that card to stop working. But it's still working just fine, on the temporary membership number, for something like 8 years now. I may eventually stop by one of their branch libraries and get a real card, but there doesn't appear to be any hurry to do so.

Colorado Springs will also issue you a card. Kind of. Their website was not clear, so I called them. They said they don't issue cards to residents outside of Colorado Springs. But I tried on their website anyway. It let me put in my address (which is not in Colorado Springs) and it gave me a temporary card for a few months. Hmmm. Maybe their programming needs to be revamped a little. So I used their temporary card for the few months until it went belly up. But I never attempted a trip down to Colorado Springs to get a real card, because that probably would have been futile. Colorado Springs did have some eBook titles in their library that no other library had (so does Poudre), so I was a little sad to lose Colorado Springs. But I was getting a little greedy by pursuing them in the first place. But if you really want a particular eBook, and they have it, why not try applying for their temporary card on their website using your New Jersey address? Doesn't hurt to try, and my experience was that their website programmer may not have been the sharpest in determining non-Colorado Springs addresses.

IIRC, some of these libraries would even issue limited membership cards to out of state folks, but that was only for physical book checkouts. No eBooks. I assume in case you were vacationing here and wanted some books to check out (and return) while in the state. This provided no benefit to me so I didn't investigate further other than simply noting the blurb on the library website.

07-30-2022, 09:12 PM	#52
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,755 Karma: 26012554 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	COLORADO RESIDENTS ----- It was probably meant for this thread to be national, or even international, but taking things down to the state level ... If you live in COLORADO, the following libraries will issue you their library card for free: Denver Library Arapahoe County Library Jefferson County Library Anythink Library (a.k.a. Rangeview Library) High Plains Library Front Range Library Across Colorado Library Douglas County Library Poudre River Library There may well be more, and probably are, but these are the ones I know of (because I am a member of all of them). The general practice is you can sign up online and get a temporary member number good for a few months. You can check out eBooks with this temporary member number. Eventually you need to physically go to one of each library's branches with an Colorado ID to get a permanent card. From then on you can check out all the eBooks you want. I've never had any of these libraries age-out and cancel my account, and I've been using them for many years. The above are all Denver metro area libraries. Except for Poudre, which is up in Ft. Collins (a little over an hours drive away). The Across Colorado library is the farthest from me, and I called them and asked if they would mail me a permanent member card instead, based on my word that I was indeed a Colorado resident. They happily did. I guess giving them a home address in Colorado to mail the card to was enough proof that I lived in Colorado. I did not ask any of the other libraries to do this - I just made a road trip all over the Denver metro area one day and hit all the libraries one after the other. I carried a copy of my water bill, which shows my name and address, because many websites said that would be required as additional proof of residency. However, not a single library asked for it. My drivers license was all they wanted to see. I never made it to the Denver library as required (rush hour traffic during my little road trip nuked that planned stop). So I expected that card to stop working. But it's still working just fine, on the temporary membership number, for something like 8 years now. I may eventually stop by one of their branch libraries and get a real card, but there doesn't appear to be any hurry to do so. Colorado Springs will also issue you a card. Kind of. Their website was not clear, so I called them. They said they don't issue cards to residents outside of Colorado Springs. But I tried on their website anyway. It let me put in my address (which is not in Colorado Springs) and it gave me a temporary card for a few months. Hmmm. Maybe their programming needs to be revamped a little. So I used their temporary card for the few months until it went belly up. But I never attempted a trip down to Colorado Springs to get a real card, because that probably would have been futile. Colorado Springs did have some eBook titles in their library that no other library had (so does Poudre), so I was a little sad to lose Colorado Springs. But I was getting a little greedy by pursuing them in the first place. But if you really want a particular eBook, and they have it, why not try applying for their temporary card on their website using your New Jersey address? Doesn't hurt to try, and my experience was that their website programmer may not have been the sharpest in determining non-Colorado Springs addresses. IIRC, some of these libraries would even issue limited membership cards to out of state folks, but that was only for physical book checkouts. No eBooks. I assume in case you were vacationing here and wanted some books to check out (and return) while in the state. This provided no benefit to me so I didn't investigate further other than simply noting the blurb on the library website.