If your library has emailed you about a Libby PIN, it is moving its digital lending to sign-in with a card number plus a PIN or password. A growing number of libraries are doing the same. Auckland Libraries in New Zealand switched on September 16, 2026. Several US libraries have told patrons to expect the change on or around October 1. The libraries call it an OverDrive requirement (OverDrive is the company behind Libby). The task is the same everywhere: find your PIN before the switch so borrowing and holds keep working.
What the libraries have announced
The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library in Indiana posted its notice on September 4, 2026. Patrons will need their library card number and PIN to use Libby, the OverDrive website and Kanopy (the library’s film service). The library calls this “a new OverDrive requirement” and asks patrons to “know their library PIN in addition to their library card number before October 1st”. The change itself arrives in early October.
Beauregard Parish Library in Louisiana gives the same window, “on or around Oct 1”, and explains that OverDrive “is increasing security around log-in access”. It also tells patrons what their PIN is likely to be by default: the last four digits of the phone number on their library account.
Auckland Libraries went first among the notices we found. Its post of September 15 said that from Wednesday September 16, 2026, borrowers must sign in with their library barcode and PIN or password.
We could not find a company-wide announcement from OverDrive. The wording comes from the libraries, and the dates differ from one library to the next. At least one library made the change earlier: Boone County Public Library in Kentucky moved Libby to PIN sign-in on November 18, 2024. It’s a rolling change, library by library, with no single date for everyone on Libby.
The Auckland switch and the missing loans
Of these notices, Auckland’s is the only change that has already happened, and it came with a problem. The library wrote that it was “aware of an issue affecting some customers where checkouts and holds from before Wednesday 16 September may not appear in Libby or OverDrive.” It asked affected borrowers to fill out a form so it could restore the missing items, and said it was working “with the vendor” on a fix.
The post gives no timeline for the items to reappear. Nor does it say whether the loans were lost or only hidden, or whether a restored hold keeps its place in the queue. If your library switches on October 1, write down your current loans and holds before then, with the queue position shown for each hold. A screenshot of the Libby shelf is enough.
Finding your PIN before the switch
The PIN belongs to your library account, not to Libby. Libby’s help page on forgotten details was updated on September 3, 2026. It suggests looking for the card number on the back of the card, where it may be under the barcode. For the PIN, try “the last 4 digits of your phone number or your birthday”, it says, and contact the library if neither works.
If you’ve only ever used the card at the desk, you may never have typed the PIN at all. To test it, sign in to your library’s own catalog website with the card number and the PIN you think is right. Libby checks the same library account, so a pair that works there should work in Libby too.
When the switch reaches your library, you may be asked to confirm the card. Libby’s help describes a prompt to verify it “before you can borrow or place a hold”. Look under Menu, in the “For Your Attention” section, for “Verify Card”, which takes the card number and PIN.
Kobo owners
Of all e-reader owners, Kobo owners need the PIN most, because Kobo e-readers can borrow from OverDrive libraries without a phone. On a model such as the Kobo Clara BW, which supports Libby borrowing on the device itself, you link the library in the reader’s settings with a QR code or a web address and a code. Then you enter your “library card number and PIN/password”, in the words of Kobo’s help page.
Kobo’s help also says that if you signed in with an email address and password before, “this option may no longer be available”, and you should use the card number and PIN instead. If you linked your library to your Kobo years ago with an email login, check the borrowing section of the reader’s settings before your library’s switch date.
Neither Kobo nor the libraries have said whether a reader that’s already signed in will be asked to sign in again when a library changes its method. Don’t be surprised by a sign-in prompt after October 1.
Kindle owners
You can’t borrow from a library on the Kindle itself. In the US, Libby delivers a loan to a Kindle through your Amazon account when you choose Kindle delivery in the Libby app. The PIN change affects the Libby side of that: the sign-in that lets you borrow in the first place. None of the libraries’ notices mention Kindle delivery, and we have found nothing to suggest it changes.
What is still unconfirmed
There is no list of the libraries affected, and OverDrive has not published one. The dates vary too: the notices we found range from September 16 to “early October”. And the Auckland loss of loans and holds has no public explanation yet, so there is no way to know whether other libraries will see the same thing.
Your own library’s website or newsletter is the reliable source for your date. If it has not said anything, ask at the desk or by email whether a PIN change is planned for Libby, and confirm your PIN in the same conversation.
