Library Perks

Los Angeles libraries are not just for free books, computers or a cool place to hang out on a hot summer day.  Did you know they offer people with Library Cards LOTS of other freebies?

1.  Free Museum Tickets: Why pay to go to a museum when all you have to do is go to the go to L.A. County Library’s “Discover & Go” program online for free tickets:.

Library card holders, above the age of 18, can visit the Discover & Go online portal to reserve free family passes to local Southern California museums.

Partnering museums and cultural institutions provide the LA County Library a limited number of free passes to library card holders, who can go online and reserve free family passes. All free tickets are first come, first served, until all tickets are exhausted for the month. 

Museums currently participating in the County Library program include: Autry Museum, Craft & Folk Art Museum, Japanese American National Museum, Kidspace Children’s Museum, La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, LACMA, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Skirball Museum, and more.

2.  Free Music: With your card, you can also access to the Sony music catalog Freegal which lets you download up to five tracks a week...all for FREE.

3.  Free Magazines:  One of the most kept secrets...with your library card you can download to your tablet or phone as many magazines as you want and keep them for as long as you want.  And, of course, if you’re really partial to reading L.A.’s own daily paper of record, you can also access copies of the L.A. Times — though not the full site — via the LA. Public library’s Proquest online database. The New York Times is ALSO available, but only a limited number each day.  

Using RB Digital, get full digital editions of popular magazines such as Us Weekly, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Magazine, Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Cook's Illustrated, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living, Newsweek, OK! Magazine, and more!

Start at our website to sign up for a RB Digital account and check out as many magazines as you want. Read instantly on a computer, or get the RB Digital app for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire to read on your device. Data rates may apply – we suggest using Wi-Fi when downloading magazines.

4.  Streaming movies and tv shows: Yep.  They got those too, as well as free online classes.  Movies & TV shows check out for three days and automatically expire. Check out up to 8 items per month on Hoopla.  

5.  Free audiobooks: Another great perk is free to access to nearly unlimited audiobooks. No need to get that Audible account that’s been advertised to you in every single podcast you’ve ever listened to since like 2014. If you have a library card, basically any audiobook you could want is already yours.

All the information is online at the LA Library site....but the bottom line is you’ll need to get an app and create an account with your card number and pin (which is just the last four digits of your phone number). Once you’re set up, you can download audiobooks and ebooks—up to 30 items at once, for three weeks each.  Oh, and no need to run to the downtown branch...any local library card will do.

The LA LIBRARY is super cool...and who doesn't love free stuff.  That's why we ❤️it.