Readers can once again look up a book, request a hold, or manage their account through the Free Library of Philadelphia’s online catalog. The library announced the restoration on November 10, after taking the catalog offline for preventive maintenance beginning October 23.
Take “James,” Percival Everett’s 2024 National Book Award winner for fiction. The print record for the 2024 Doubleday first edition has a Place Hold link and lists copies by branch. The Bushrod Library entry showed its copy in transit when checked on November 12. A branch name tells you where a copy is listed; the status is what to check before making the trip.
If you’d rather listen, the library’s OverDrive listing for “James” is a separate record for the audiobook narrated by Dominic Hoffman. Check availability there or in Libby. A print copy in transit tells you nothing about whether you can start listening today.
The library’s maintenance notice says digital borrowing through OverDrive and Libby continued during the outage, as did borrowing at branches. Staff could still help with holds. Some readers commenting on the notice reported trouble verifying their cards or using their PINs in Libby. What came back this week was the ability to do that catalog work yourself online.