To begin, you’ll need to download and install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) on your computer. Overdrive uses Adobe Digital Editions to handle its digital rights management. You should also create a free account, as prompted, so you can authorize your Nook (or other computers) to read the books as well.

Step 1. Check out your book on Overdrive

Use your library card barcode and pin to sign in to the Overdrive website. You can search for ebooks without being signed in, but being signed in makes the process faster after you’ve decided which book you want. Once you’ve found the book you want to check out, click “add to cart.”

Proceed from your cart to Checkout before your book expires. In most cases this is 30 minutes.

Confirm checkout. A drop-down menu will let you specify the period you want to check the book out for.

Step 2. Download and Open in Adobe Digital Editions

On your Bookshelf, click the download link to download a file which Adobe Digital Editions will use to download the actual ebook. You can save the file to your computer, but since this isn’t the actual ebook and you won’t need it later, you can also just choose to open with Adobe Digital Editions.

Adobe Digital Editions will download the actual ebook and open it on your computer.

Click on the Library icon (where the red arrow is pointing in the screengrab above) to return to the library view. This is where you’ll transfer the book to your nook.

Step 3. Transfer the ebook to your Nook

If your Nook isn’t yet connected to your computer, use the USB cable to connect it and turn it on. It should appear in your Adobe Digital Editions library page as shown below:

Some users note that if you plug in and turn on your Nook and it doesn’t show up in ADE, simply exit and reopen ADE. Before reopening ADE, double check that your Nook is on and is displaying the USB connection screen. If you’re not seeing it and see regular Nook screens instead, you’ve ejected your Nook and you’ll need to unplug and replug it in. Another commenter notes that the Nook Color may show up as “Media” rather than as “Nook” in ADE.

Now, click on the book you want to transfer to your Nook and drag it to your Nook icon as shown below:

If you click on the Nook icon, it should show up as being in your Nook’s library as well. Once you get the hang of it it’s quite straightforward. Check out, download, drag and drop, and voila you’re reading your library book on your Nook!

Step 4. Return the ebook from your Nook and computer

Your library book will expire after the lending period is over and you won’t be able to access it on your Nook any more. But if you want to return the ebook before the lending period is over, either so that you can check out more or just because you want other people to have access to the ebook, you can also return it just like you would a regular book.

Returning it is easy in Adobe Digital Editions, but it has to be done from both your Nook and your computer.

First, plug in your Nook and turn it on. Click the icon in Adobe Digital Editions to view your Nook’s ebook library. Click on the little arrow in the upper-left-hand corner of the title image and select “Return Borrowed Item”:

Once the book disappears, click on the “All Items” bookshelf in Adobe Digital Editions, find the book, and repeat the returning process. If you go to your library’s website and visit Overdrive, your book should no longer be on your bookshelf either. If it is, go back to Adobe Digital Editions and check any of its bookshelves for copies of your book.