Library Freebies. Free Book Rentals, Free Entertainment & Much More.

The library is a wonderland of freebies including free book rentals, free movie rentals, free music rentals, and wifi internet. Yet, it also offers many other freebies that people don’t commonly consider. Before those are discussed in detail below, here is a demonstration of the money you can save on book rentals by going to the library (book rentals being the most common benefit associated with libraries):

• Anatomy textbook purchase on Amazon: $97
• Anatomy textbook rental at Chegg.com: $33.29/semester
• Anatomy textbook rental at BookRenter.com: $30.54/semester
• Anatomy textbook rental at the Library: Free with local pickup

If you’re a college student taking multiple classes, each of which requires a textbook, then the library could save you hundreds of dollars a semester. It’s not as convenient as buying the textbooks, but it can be free. Even if you’re not a college student, imagine how much money you spend on books, movies, entertainment admission, or even tool rentals when you have a home project. All of that and more is available at the library for free.

Some libraries are funded by the local government, others are funded by schools or funded privately. You can gain access to most libraries by providing documentation that you are part of the community they serve. If it’s a local library, you’ll have to show that you live or work in the same municipality by bringing a driver’s license or piece of mail to sign up for a library card. If the library is funded by a school, then you’ll likely need to attend the school to benefit from all of their services. Yet, the majority of libraries do not charge admission to enter and they don’t check your library card to enter. So even if you’re not a part of the community that they serve, you can go there for free and use whatever they have within the library itself. This is an excellent environment to read, study or meet like-minded people.

What Can I Get For Free At The Library?

Here is a list of all the services that your library could potentially offer. Each service depends on the particular library that is near you.

Free Book Rental

Libraries never actually use the word “rental”. But that is essentially what you’re doing when checking out an item. The hallmark of libraries is allowing their members to check out books. You could buy a book from a local book store for $10-$20, or you can read it for free at the library.

Free Audio Book Rental

Beyond normal books most libraries also have audio books to check out. This is an excellent resource for when you’re going on a road trip or for business commuters who want to “graduate” from “car university”. You could buy audio books for $15-$40, rent them with a service like Audible.com for $15/month or listen to them for free by checking them out at the local library.

Free Movie Rental

Movie rentals have dramatically evolved over the last 10-20 years. Movie rental stores are now almost non-existent since they’ve been replaced with movie rental kiosks and streaming services. However, you can still “rent” movies at the library and they may even have a better selection than other options. You could buy movies for $5-$25, rent them for $1-$3, or watch them free from the local library.

Free Music Rental

Music can cost as low as $1 for a single song and up to about $30 for an album. However, at the local library you can check music out for free. If you don’t have a CD player (which is becoming more and more old school), then you’ll be interested in the free access to electronic media mentioned below.

Library To Library Rentals

Since libraries can borrow from each other, that means you potentially have access to any media that you could possibly want. However, it’s more likely when you want something from a nearby library or a library within the same county or city. See your librarian or check the library website to request transfer checkout.

Special Purchase Requests

What your local library doesn’t have an item that you’d like to use for free? Then simply make a special request for them to buy it. You can do this by checking with the librarian or going to the library website. Some libraries are quicker than others in fulfilling this request.

Free Newspaper & Magazines

Newspaper and magazines are usually not available to checkout, but they’ll have a place reserved in the library where you can go and read them, for free of course.

Free Access to Electronic Media (Movies, Music, eBooks, etc.)

Most libraries can give you free access to electronic media such as ebooks, audio books, movies, music, digital magazines, legal libraries, and multiple niche-specific research databases. Comparable paid services include Amazon ebooks ($1-$30 each), Audio Books from Audible.com ($15/month), iTunes for music (about $1/song), Zinio for digital magazines (same subscription fees as printed magazines), and Legal Shield for legal documents ($40-$150/month). A niche-specific research database could charge $20 for one-time access or $50-$100 a month. With electronic media from the library you can even download and keep many of the songs, digital magazines, legal documents and other electronic media, although some will only be available for streaming. The media is available through multiple different services such as Hoopla, Overdrive, RBdigital, TumbleBooks, InstantFlix, and others.

Other Free Subscriptions Or Free Applications

The library could potentially have free subscriptions or access to paid applications. You can use these resources for free within the library. For example, your local library may have purchased Adobe Creative Suite (worth about $500) which you could potentially access for free. Niche-specific libraries will have access to niche-specific applications. For example, multiple family history libraries offered to the public by the LDS Church will have free access to Ancestry.com (a value of about $100 a year)

WiFi Internet

Wireless free internet, or WiFi, is so common that it’s often taken for granted. However the internet is a marvelous form of communication and when you’re not in a place that has WiFi you’ll end up paying $30-$60 at home or for mobile data. See also WiFi Directory in Web Freebies.

In-house Computer Access

The library’s WiFi gives you free internet access on your laptop or mobile devices. But what if you need a computer? No problem. Your library will likely have one that you can use for 1-2 hours by signing in with your library card.

Free Education, Classes & Events

Your library will often collaborate with local experts to offer classes in technology, book publishing, personal finances, dancing, and other skills. They may also offer workshops, kid crafts, movie nights, game nights, video game nights, and other events. Check the libraries website for a calendar or events page, or look at the librarian’s desk for a printed publication that lists all upcoming events.

Offering a free class at a local library can be an excellent promotional resource for local businesses and a way to serve the community.

Free Research Assistance

Your local librarian is a personal research concierge. If you’re having trouble finding a book on a specific topic or getting access to a database that you need, they can potentially help you find things where you’re not looking.

Free Conference Rooms

Most libraries have private study rooms or conference rooms that you can reserve for free with a library card. These can be used to study or for business meetings.

Culture Pass

Admission to local zoos, museums, science centers, aquariums, planetariums, botanical gardens, and other educational entertainment venues could cost anywhere between $5-$40 a person. Yet, most libraries will collaborate with these venues to offer a culture pass to library members. This culture pass gives you free admission to participating venues.

Free Business Incubators

More and more libraries are starting to cater to business startups and entrepreneurs as a resource to stimulate the local economy. The resources that the library may include are video and sound studios, business training, 3-D printers, sewing machines and the opportunity to learn technical skills. It may even include business mentoring.

Free Tool Rentals

Items for checkout are not always limited to books, movies and music. Some libraries allow you to rent tools for free. Compare prices with Home Depot or Lowes tool rentals to see the value of this service.

Free Books To Keep

Many libraries maintain a book store where they’ll sell used and donated books. This helps them make space on the shelves for new books and raise funds. Sometimes they’ll receive books that they determine will not sell, so they give them away for free. There is usually a box or basket near the bookstore entrance.

Where Can I Find A Local Library?

Since Google is the modern Yellow Pages, you can search there for a local library. Here are some alternate resources to either find libraries or specific items to checkout:

Worldcat.org – The world’s largest library catalog. Find items in libraries near you.

NCES.ed.gov/globallocator – A search service provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. Search for local Schools and Colleges (not just to find them, but to find their libraries).

LocalTools.org – Find a local tool-lending library.

Actually Fee accepts all submissions of libraries to the Local Freebies Directory. Let us know if you’d like to have one listed near where you live.