Search your local library cookbooks for recipes

April 29, 2025 by
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We have recently added a new feature allowing library patrons to search the collection of cookbooks on their local library’s bookshelves. It works slightly differently to an individual membership, allowing access directly to the recipe search from a QR code or short URL that the library supplies to their patrons. The library patrons cannot make any changes to the library data but can search both the books and recipes in their entire collection. And also search the EYB collection of 540,000 online recipes.


If you borrow cookbooks from your local library and would love to be able to search their collection for recipes, please suggest to the librarians that they take a look at these Help Pages that explain how the service works. It costs a very reasonable US$250 each year – much less than most data services that libraries subscribe to. Imagine that you want to make a special recipe that isn’t available in your own collection. Or you have a glut of zucchini from your garden and want some new recipe ideas. Or you’d like some hints on your next cookbook to borrow from the library. If your library was an EYB member then you could do a recipe search on their collection from your own home – they probably have hundreds of thousands of indexed recipes available to you, and now you can find them.

Category: What's New on EYB

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5 Comments

  • Megoola  on  April 29, 2025

    Wow! This is an innovative application of the tools you have built. My town only has 1600 people so I doubt we have more than 300 active patrons. I’m a bit envious of bigger libraries right now.

  • Skamper  on  May 1, 2025

    This is an incredibly tough time for public libraries, given the drastic cuts to federal funding through the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

  • Chefsherri  on  June 23, 2025

    This would be a wonderful new service for our library system to be able to offer, and for only $250 per year, easy for an EYB cookbook fan to donate as a gift to them. Thanks for the heads up on this new service.

  • Therese  on  July 29, 2025

    Genius.
    First place I go these days when reading of new cookbooks is my local library catalogues ( had to stop buying new ones all the time)

    Any suggestions for how to highlight the location of books one has access to outside ones own shelves? My community have a shared library and there’s some friends I know have books I’dlike to reference sometimes.

    • Jane  on  July 30, 2025

      The easiest way is to add them to your wishlist. Those books are then accessible in the Library (apply the filter on the right, or under the Filter menu on a phone) but are not included in your recipe searches. You can add Personal Notes as to their location – only you will see those. If you aren’t familiar with the Wishlist feature, this is the Help section. BTW, if you use your library for borrowing cookbooks, please encourage them to sign up for our new library membership. Further details here in Help.

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