Amazon To Offer Library Lending For Kindle EBooks

Amazon announced today that Kindle users will soon be able to borrow their favorite eBooks from over 11,000 libraries across the country.

Unlike Amazon's current eBook borrowing system, Kindle Library Lending will allow customers to renew checked out books and preserve previous annotations using the company's Whispersnyc technology.

"We're excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries," Amazon Kindle Director Jay Marine said in a statement.

"We're doing a little something extra here," he added. "Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library."

Users will be able to borrow books on all generations of Kindle ereaders and apps for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone.

The program is slated to begin later this year.

Comments

[elijahjoon]

09:55 PM on 04/21/2011

Get 'em

[drp103]

03:39 PM on 04/21/2011

If I want a book I'll buy it. Let this be a way for the less fortunate to benefit.

[Soulfest]

07:38 AM on 04/23/2011

How do the "less fortunate" afford to buy Kindles, Nooks, IPads?

[StoutHouse]

10:58 AM on 04/21/2011

So our publicly funded libraries are now a de facto advertising arm for the same private corporation whose goal is to monopolize the book industry, promoting and showcasing Amazon's proprietary hardware and apps? Wonder if they'll be collecting affiliate dollars as well? After all, check out a Kindle book at your public library and Amazon's patented Whispersync technology will save your bookmarks and notes when you purchase the book on Amazon. Somewhere George Orwell just crapped his grave.

Amazon's aggressive (and admirably creative) tax avoidance has led directly to funding slashes to public libraries nationwide, and now these kindly little librarians have leaped into bed with Jeff Bezos? Dizzying logic, particularly as Bezos would step over the corpses of a thousand dessicated librarians if he saw a dime gleaming on the other side of the pile.

Welcome to your local Public Library®©™, America.

http://www.moonbattery.com/jeff-bezos.jpg

[ChelleAgain]

12:18 PM on 04/21/2011

So, Amazon allowing library lending bothers you in a way all the other companies didn't? Can't you work up a rant against Sony? :)

I don't think the kindly librarians had any active role in Overdrive offering another format for lending. Why would they? They aren't purchasing new "Kindle" books, but rather the books they have now can now be sent to Kindles as one option.

[pattileigh]

09:05 AM on 04/21/2011

It sounds like they are converting the ebooks from Libraries which can not be read on the Kindle right now to a format compatible to Kindle. That said, I use a Nook to get ebooks from the library. The problem is there aren't enough copies of the books and there is a large waiting list for books. At first it sounded like they were lending books from our libraries so this article does not explain exactly what they are doing.

[ChelleAgain]

11:53 AM on 04/21/2011

No, I don't think there's any conversion. Libraries purchases copies/license for books as usual, but with the change people can request their copy for their Kindle. It sounds like Overdrive then coordinates with Amazon to send it to them for the period of lending and the library can't lend it for the same period of time. That's the way it's explained on the Overdrive site.

[Eileenla]

05:43 AM on 04/21/2011

Awesome! Anything that makes it easier for people to get free access to information gets my vote...and I'm an author.

[Dave Bee]

04:02 AM on 04/21/2011

this is absolutely heartbreaking. A community killer and just another way for people to be all about themselves because there is no civic duty in returning a digital copy of something, like there is with returning a physical thing so someone else can read it. Ugh got i used to be a technophile, but i am starting to really hate the future.

[Eileenla]

05:44 AM on 04/21/2011

I never realized the primary reason people went to the library was to develop a sense of civic duty. I always went there to read...

[Dave Bee]

05:09 AM on 04/22/2011

the reading is what you go for, the lesson in civic duty an added bonus. No one gets a library card with the intent to just used books and never return them. You learn it as you go. SO congratulations, you learned it and didnt even realize you did. Your smarter about the fact that you already got smarter.

[pattileigh]

09:09 AM on 04/21/2011

I go to the library to borrow books and I also borrow ebooks for the Nook. Yesterday while reading a really exciting part in my ebook the battery ran out. Frustrating! The only reason I purchased the Nook was I just have too many books in the house even though most books I read are from the library I still buy books. Sometimes progress ruins the very things we love such as libraries and book stores.

[ChelleAgain]

11:56 AM on 04/21/2011

I knew Nook had a much shorter battery life than Kindle, but is there no warning? With a Kindle, you'd have to willfully ignore the depleting battery symbol for days (at the least) for that to happen.

[Dave Bee]

05:11 AM on 04/22/2011

wait, TOO many books? I dont understand what you mean.

[YourNewNeighbor]

03:39 AM on 04/21/2011

It just won't be the same without the chewing gum, food stains and pencil markings.

[LearnMe]

11:05 PM on 04/20/2011

Great, I'll start making a list of books to check-out. www.learnmeproject.com

[Jenni Gahr Schmidt]

09:14 PM on 04/20/2011

So excited about this since I found that to be the biggest drawback in choosing Kindle over the Nook... and now to hear that Amazon is going to add more flexibility to borrowing than B&N, I am even happier with my choice.

[namewithheld]

09:07 PM on 04/20/2011

I don;t have a Kindle (yet), but this seems like a good thing even to a cynic like me. what's the catch?

[ChelleAgain]

01:01 AM on 04/21/2011

I don't think there IS a catch. Other readers have had this feature for a while and I think Amazon figured it was time. Strategically, they just took away Nook's main bragging/selling point at a time when B&N remains vulnerable and Borders is unlikely to rebound. Previously, I think they were trying to sell to people who specifically preferred to buy books and gathering a base there.

Now, it sounds like the deal they have with Overdrive allows them to keep their format. My understanding is that borrowers tell Overdrive the device, Overdrive has Amazon enable lending on the title for that person, so they're still not doing ePub.

[pattileigh]

09:13 AM on 04/21/2011

The catch is there is a long wait for ebooks at the library but once you finally get the borrow one it will now be converted to the format for Kindle. That means a longer wait for books now that it's opened up to Kindle users.

[cdianek]

08:25 PM on 04/20/2011

Good news. I have a often-slow night job (No! I am not an air traffic controller!) and though I love my Kindle like I was its momma, I still rely heavily on the library. This will help with the toting around of stuff (between dinner, book bag, purse, gym bag and sometimes laptop bag, it would just be easier for those people to pay me to stay at the house). If it comes to my library, that is.

[pattileigh]

09:14 AM on 04/21/2011

I'd worry about the no work night job once they discover they pay you to read your Kindle.

[cdianek]

10:02 AM on 04/21/2011

They know, so there's no discovering or worrying necessary.

[Bill Dodds]

07:06 PM on 04/20/2011

This is great news for Kindle authors such as myself. My latest books ("Pope Bob" and "My Great-grandfather Turns 12 Today") are on Kindle.

www.BillDodds.com

[ButterFlyGirlFly]

05:27 PM on 04/20/2011

I am so glad I did not rush to get a kindle when they first came out, now they will let you access libraries how wonderful. I have checked out so many books from the library for a year with my NOOK how wonderful.

[groucho42]

05:25 PM on 04/20/2011

This isn't new and Amazon's no leader. I know a couple who bought a Kindle for one and a Nook for another. They tested. They decided on the B&N product for two reasons: Better lending between owners of the device and many libraries were already working with B&N.

Amazon is just reacting to competition.

[ChelleAgain]

03:52 PM on 04/20/2011

This is what a lot of people have been swearing they needed in order to consider a reader, or choose a Kindle over a Nook.

[FPhoebe]

11:13 PM on 04/20/2011

I've been told the Nook is heavy....is this true? I have a Kindle, it's very light.

[ChelleAgain]

12:53 AM on 04/21/2011

Well, like you, I own a Kindle. I've held a Nook briefly and it is bigger and heavier, page turns are undeniably slower. Some people like their touchscreen better though.

[jl4141]

10:21 AM on 04/21/2011

You could look it up easily enough.