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eLibrary

eLibrary Help

Overview

Libby / Overdrive, Hoopla, and Kanopy offer parental controls that enable patrons to restrict content on the apps. See the individual app's instructions as each one works differently.

Important

  • What constitutes mature as well as what age group material is designed for is determined by the individual app creators and publishers. PPLD has no control over these determinations.

  • By default, all content is allowed. If you want to enable controls, you must opt in after installing the app.

Libby / Overdrive

Content Controls

Libby offers content controls in order to filter results to desired age groups. These are similar to parental controls, but instead of just restricting content towards kids, it also allows for adults to not have results for children's (12c and under) and young adult (13 - 18) material in their searches or browsing.

For restricting content you can choose to prohibit it in search results, allow reading samples, and allow borrowing. Settings can be locked with a password.

Profiles

  • Libby for Kids - limited to juvenile works with an option to also include young adults
  • Libby for Everyone - unrestricted with options to filter out explicit material (non-mature material targeting adults would still be allowed)
  • Libby for Grown-Ups - filters out juvenile content with an option to also filter out young adult content

Libby's content control profiles and the age groups covered displayed as a grid. Libby for Kids shows Juvenile is covered with YA optional; Libby for Everyone shows that Juvenile, YA, and All Ages are covered with Mature being optional; Libby for Grown-ups shows All Ages and Mature covered with YA being optional.

Libby, libbyapp.com, and overdrive.com

While the three services are all provided by OverDrives, Inc. they function differently and need to be set up separately. 

Important Notes

  • ppld.overdrive.com does not allow for locking the settings with a password. Libbyapp.com and the app do while having access to the same collection.
  • Controls on the Libby app are specific to the devices - not the account. If controls are needed and the person uses multiple devices, they will need to be installed on each device.

Hoopla

Hoopla offers a "Kid's Mode" that restricts content to children under the age of twelve. Kid's mode can be enabled in the Settings or by tapping the KIDS icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Important Notes

  • The app can optionally require a four-digit PIN to disable Kid's Mode.
  • The app does not have customizable filtering, so parents or guardians are expected to decide whether a specific title is appropriate for their child.
  • The setting is specific to each installation of the app; each device you use must be set up individually to require a PIN.

Kanopy

Kanopy offers a restricted library called Kanopy Kids that targets children ages 2 to 8. To enable, go into the More menu then select "Go to Kanopy Kids". To exit, go into the menu again and select "Exit Kanopy Kids".

Important Notes

  • A PIN can be set and needed to exit Kanopy Kids.
  • Each device needs to enter Kanopy Kids individually, but the PIN is the tied to the account and synchronizes across all devices.
  • Titles in the Kanopy Kids library do not require tickets to borrow even if the mode is not enabled.