Libraries have been providing eBooks and digital audiobooks for years now, enabling readers to find their favorite books and authors instantly with a simple search. Type in the name of that book you’ve been waiting for and it’s on your screen in a flash. If you’re a little unsure of what exact book you want but you enjoy a certain genre, OverDrive has long had filters for that. But what if you don’t know a genre or subject and instead want a more specific type of book? Perhaps you want something paranormal, a steampunk science fiction adventure or a cozy mystery featuring cats. OverDrive now has you covered in those instances as well.

For over a year now, librarians have been able to use the BISAC subject codes to narrow down searches in Marketplace and create curated collections. Now, readers using both our new Libby app and their library’s OverDrive-powered website can use these same keywords to find books they’ll love but might not have found otherwise.

BISAC

There are countless BISAC codes you can try, but here are some of our favorites to breakdown your search results. Romance fans have a number of subgenres to search by including time travel, viking, Scottish and Tudor. This time of year, you’ll also see a large amount of new holiday romance and mysteries out as well. Science fiction and fantasy tend to get lumped together in larger lists, but now you can do a sci-fi search using everything from space opera and cyberpunk to alternative history and hard science fiction. Fantasy fans can try searching for Arthurian, urban, folklore or even simply dragons. Searching for biographies and autobiographies can be overwhelming, but now you can look for something as straight forward as culinary biographies, fashion biographies, military, royalty or any other type of person you’re looking for.

No matter what type of stories you enjoy, you can find them now much more easily thanks to this latest update to Libby and your OverDrive service!