How to Read Books Borrowed from the National Library of Malaysia on your PocketBook E-Reader

The National Library of Malaysia hosts thousands of books on their Overdrive platform, all of which can be borrowed by Malaysians for free. All you need is an account, which you can create in 5 minutes by following our step-by-step tutorial.

PocketBook e-readers are loved by millions around the world because it has an open ecosystem and supports more than 20 ebook formats including EPUB, MOBI and DRM-protected books. The openness of the ecosystem makes it easy for users to get their favourite books from Google Play Books, Kobo, ebooks.com as well as online libraries, which will be the focus of this article.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to add books borrowed from the National Library of Malaysia to your PocketBook e-book reader.

Download your Borrowed Book

Books on Overdrive are distributed in the form of ACSM (Adobe Content Server Message) files. These are ebook files (EPUB/PDF) that are protected by Adobe’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, and can only be accessed by authorised devices.

PocketBook e-readers natively support ACSM files, so getting your borrowed books loaded onto your device is a straightforward process.

The first step is to download the ACSM file from Overdrive.

1. Head over to Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia’s Overdrive webpage
2. Go to your list of loaned books (My Account > Loans)
3. Look for the book you want to download
4. Click on the “Download” button
5. You will receive a copy of the book in the form of an ACSM file

Add the Downloaded Book to your PocketBook

Now that you have your ACSM file, you’ll just need to transfer it to your PocketBook following one of the methods listed below.

USB Transfer

1. Connect your PocketBook to your computer using the included USB cable (microUSB/Type-C)
2. You will be prompted with a dialogue window with PC Link and Charge as options. In this case, seeing as we wish to transfer files to the device, we’ll go with PC Link.
3. Your computer should automatically detect your device.
4. Copy the downloaded ACSM file over to your device.
5. Eject your device safely (right-click > eject) to avoid memory loss.
6. You should now see the file on your PocketBook.

PocketBook Cloud Digital

1. Open PocketBook Cloud Digital on your web browser. Please refer to our step-by-step guide on how to create an account if you don’t already have one.
2. Click the “Upload new book” button, and select the ACSM file you downloaded earlier.
3. Once done, you’ll just need to perform a sync on your PocketBook. Swipe down from the top of your ebook reader to reveal the notification tray. Tap on the “Sync” button to pull changes from PocketBook Cloud.
4. You should now see the file on your PocketBook.

Start Reading!

1. Just tap on the newly borrowed book to start reading.
2. The little timer on the bottom right corner of the cover shows the amount of time left before the book expires.
3. When a loan expires, you’ll have to have it renewed on Perpustakaan Negara’s Overdrive website.
4. Upon renewal, you’ll just have to re-download the ACSM file and transfer it to your device.

We hope you’ll have fun exploring Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia’s sizeable catalogue and enjoy the experience of reading them on your PocketBook!