library · Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island
Add your NYPL library card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.
Scan the barcode or QR on your NYPL library card once and carry it in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, in NYPL colors or any of hundreds of designs. Free, no account, nothing about you stored.
What code is on a NYPL card?
TapIn has not read a NYPL card yet, so the scanner decides: point the camera at the code on your card or key tag and it reports whether it is a barcode or a QR code and which kind, then fills the number in. If you know the type already, pick it from the list.
How to add a NYPL library card to your wallet
- Scan the card. Open the TapIn builder with NYPL already filled in, tap Scan the card and hold the code inside the frame. The number and code type fill in. Decoding happens on your phone; the picture is never uploaded.
- Add the logo. Drop in the NYPL logo from their website or an email from them. The pass and the page take on its colors. Pick the lettering you like.
- Add to Wallet. Tap Add to Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Add to Google Wallet on Android. The pass lands in the wallet app; on an iPhone, a double press of the side button opens Wallet from the lock screen.
- Test it once at the circulation desk and the self-checkout while you still have the physical card.
Why a wallet pass instead of the NYPL app?
A wallet pass is one swipe from the lock screen, works with no signal in the building, and never asks you to sign in. The library's own app, if it has one, is still where your account lives; the pass is only the code, made by you for your own use.
The pass looks like the preview in the builder: the logo and NYPL in the header, your design across the strip with your name over it, the small fields above the code, and the code itself drawn by the wallet. What each piece becomes has the detail.
Good to know
- Is this the NYPL app?
- No. TapIn makes a wallet pass that carries your own NYPL number, the same one printed under the code on your card. Your account, holds and loans still live with NYPL at nypl.org.
- Will NYPL scan a phone at the circulation desk and the self-checkout?
- Camera-based scanners read a phone screen; older laser wands often do not. Test the pass once at the circulation desk and the self-checkout while you still have the card. If the scanner does not pick it up, turn the screen brightness up and try again, or ask them to type the number printed under the code.
- Does TapIn store my NYPL number?
- No. An Apple Wallet pass is signed in memory and sent straight back to you. A Google Wallet pass needs the logo at a web address, so the logo tile is kept under a random name; your name and number are never stored.
- Can every card in the family go in a wallet?
- Yes. Make a pass per card on the phone that will carry it; each pass has its own number and name, and a wallet holds as many as you like.
- Which phones work?
- iPhone (Apple Wallet) and Android, including Samsung Galaxy (Google Wallet). On a computer you get a pass file to send to your phone.