How to Borrow Books from the National Library of Malaysia (Perpustakaan Negara – Overdrive)

Unbeknownst to many, thousands of ebooks are available to Malaysians on Perpustakaan Negara’s Overdrive platform, all of which can be borrowed for free! In this guide, we will walkthrough the process of creating an account and borrowing your very first ebook.

Account Registration

1. Fill in the u-Pustaka registration form
2. Once done, you will receive an email with an activation link. Click the link to activate your account.
3. Congratulations! You now have a u-Pustaka membership account.

Accessing Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia – Overdrive

1. Head over to Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia’s Overdrive site
2. Sign-in with the u-Pustaka username and password created above.
3. You should now be able browse through Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia’s catalogue of ebooks and audiobooks

Borrowing Books

1. Browse through the library catalogue and pick a book you’re interested in.
2. Click “Borrow”. You will be presented with the following options, but you can ignore them for now.
   • Download the book as an encrypted EPUB file
   • Read it right away using Overdrive’s web-reader software
3. Congratulations! You have now successfully borrowed your very first ebook from Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia.
4. All the books you’ve borrowed are listed under My Account > Loans. You can renew books that are about to expire and also return them here.

Reading your Borrowed Books

Books on Overdrive are distributed in the form of Adobe Content Server Message (ACSM) files. It’s basically an ebook file (EPUB/PDF) protected by Adobe’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. Files are distributed this way to give publishers more control over file access, which in turn helps prevent theft, piracy and unauthorised access.

There are several rather straightforward ways to read books borrowed from Perpustakaan Negara on your computer, phone, as well as supported eInk devices like PocketBook.

Computer

Overdrive has a solid web-reader software that you can use to read all your borrowed books. This is a great option for students or researchers who might want to have access to a reference book while working on a paper. You can add bookmarks, notes and highlights and make basic adjustments to the fonts and page layout to suit your preference.

Smartphones and Tablets

The Overdrive app called Libby, by Overdrive is available for both iOS and Android devices on the App Store and the Google Play Store respectively. Within the app, you can browse Perpustakaan Negara’s catalogues, borrow books, and of course enjoy your borrowed ebooks, audiobooks and magazines.

eInk Devices

Reading books on your phone, tablet, or computer for long hours can often result in headaches and eye-strain. Ebook readers with eInk displays generally offer a superior reading experience thanks to their glare-free, paper-like display that does not project light directly into your eyes.

It’s possible to read books borrowed from Perpustakaan Negara on some of the ebook readers that we sell. Please refer to the following guides for more detailed information:

• Read borrowed books on your PocketBook ebook reader
• Read borrowed books on your Likebook ebook reader