Surprisingly bad. Sadly.
I’m surprised with all the passionate, talented, and dedicated people that work for the NYPL, that this app was the best they could produce. Surely they have someone who teaches a class on end user interface or something similar. If not they have a book on it.
Allow us to select multiple format filters for one basic thing. Make it search, not catalog. Or change “catalog” to a browse/discovery option and add a prominent search function. No the current is not well designed or placed. It’s honestly very poor. Allow change of default library branch in app for those who’ve moved.
Allow us to select multiple format filters for one basic thing. Make it search, not catalog. Or change “catalog” to a browse/discovery option and add a prominent search function. No the current is not well designed or placed. It’s honestly very poor. Allow change of default library branch in app for those who’ve moved.
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False Advertising
Latest update of app claims that it now allows you to add your NYPL card to Apple Wallet
BUT there’s still NO way to add your NYPL card to Apple Wallet
Looked everywhere on app but functionality isn’t there
BUT there’s still NO way to add your NYPL card to Apple Wallet
Looked everywhere on app but functionality isn’t there
New update is terrible
My main purpose for using the app is searching for books I want and placing a hold on them for checkout. With the new app I am no longer able to place holds on books. Why not? And why would you update an app in this way? The new app is virtually useless for me.
New version is awful
The latest update is awful. I assume they didn’t test it with any real users because it never would have been approved. Please fix it 😫
could be much better
quiet unfortunate that this app is so confusing and terribly designed. why can’t you see how many people are on hold for a book until you actually go and put it on hold?? new design is fine but why is the website UI totally different and better than this
New update not good
Worked fine, new update now means as a family you have to switch between accounts instead of being able to see everything in one place.
Hire a design studio
Please just hire a reputable design studio to redesign your app. I don’t understand how an “updated” version of the app could be worse and more frustrating than the previous. Truly at a loss for words.
This new app update sucks
The latest app update, July of 2026, is a joke. The app was very user friendly before, now not so much. It shows available titles when you search, yet you cannot place holds on them. It used to be you searched a title, clicked it, then clicked the place hold button, and that was it. Now if you find a title that you can place a hold on, a rarity, it gives back an error message. Why would they update the app this way? Plus it looks worse too.
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Quite mediocre
I’ve been a customer of NYPL library services for nearly a year now, and I appreciate the variety of reading material available and have been able to enjoy a couple ebooks. However, I cannot get over how terrible their apps (own, Overdrive, and Libby) and their site are, right from the beginning. The fault isn’t even with the latest versions, they’ve been uniformly awful with any actions I try to execute from the very beginning of my time as a library member. I can’t find the availability of any of the books I’m looking for, cannot borrow, cannot see my checkouts, pretty much nothing.
If I could ask for help with a specific task, I would, but their online presence is messed up from A-Z. How can they be so mediocre and serve a great city like NYC?
If I could ask for help with a specific task, I would, but their online presence is messed up from A-Z. How can they be so mediocre and serve a great city like NYC?
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Just use the website on a browser
This is actually worse than just viewing the NYPL website in a browser. Why does this app even exist?
Terrible
Barely usable. The search function just does not work at all
Why can’t I save titles for later??
I love the app for the most part, but I hate that I have to be in a web browser to bookmark titles for later! As I’m scrolling insta or in a conversation with friends I want to be able to quickly add titles to my app but not put a hold on all of them at once. I don’t know why this feature isn’t available on the app but it is on the website. Drives me crazy!
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Very buggy app
I love NYPL. I hate their app. It will often show me zero books checked out or on hold when I have many of both.
Good but a suggestion
Im not a very avid library user, I do check out stuff every once in awhile. Sometimes I forget the things I want to check out eventually, once I’m
done with something else. It’d be nice for there to be a list function that puts items into a list of like saved searches. To eventually put on hold. That’s it. Besides that, app visual design could be smoother but more or less good app in my opinion.
done with something else. It’d be nice for there to be a list function that puts items into a list of like saved searches. To eventually put on hold. That’s it. Besides that, app visual design could be smoother but more or less good app in my opinion.
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meh
The NYPL deserves a world class app. This app is glitchy, far from intuitive and poorly organized. Did you guys farm this out to a high school intern or what? Love the library hate the app.
This app is very difficult to use , BAD!
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Suddenly losing functionality
I was generally happy with the app. It allowed me to manage three card accounts (mine and my kids’), search, place holds, look up status. Some functions require more steps than is ideal (ie would be great to see all checked out items for all accounts without three steps between each), and I kept resetting my default library from my old neighborhood to my new one without it ever permanently updating, but overall it worked fine. Now, when I search the catalog, results don’t show call numbers or availability. I’m flying blind hoping it’s the right edition and available when o place a hold. Seems to not play well with the latest iPhone update, but who knows. I still appreciate having it, but it’s slipping and I have to use it in tandem with the web, which defeats the purpose of an app.
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Not a Helpful App
The only features i want on this are mobile checkout and to reserve a book to go to a library branch, and both features do not work on this version of the app. I just use the website instead unfortunately.
It Works, But Has a Serious Problem
I’ve been using the app for some years now without issue. The mobile checkout feature is great. However, there’s one problem that made take two stars off my rating.
For sometime now, when you look at the list of library branches where a specific book might be, the list in the app is almost always missing the majors of branches.
They are listed alphabetically and when that list ends with just a few branches around letter C, you know something is wrong.
Go the NYPL.org webpage and there are the rest of the branches the app is missing.
Hopefully, someone from the development team reads this and fixes it.
For sometime now, when you look at the list of library branches where a specific book might be, the list in the app is almost always missing the majors of branches.
They are listed alphabetically and when that list ends with just a few branches around letter C, you know something is wrong.
Go the NYPL.org webpage and there are the rest of the branches the app is missing.
Hopefully, someone from the development team reads this and fixes it.
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Renewal issue
Can’t see my checkouts, let alone renewing them
