E-books have been of considerable benefit to the publishing industry, which before their emergence was experiencing sales difficulties. Now, users of the Amazon Kindle e-reader will be able to download e-books for free, directly from over 11,000 public libraries throughout the U.S., according to the New York Times.
The news source reports that many of these libraries have had e-books available for several years, since before the Kindle’s explosion of popularity. However, the Kindle did not have the ability to download them until now. Other e-readers, such as the Nook and Sony Reader, were already capable of downloading e-books, and the same has been true of smartphones and tablet computers as well.
The development concerns some publishers, since e-books have arguably been their most significant source of revenue in the past few years. The staff members of the libraries e-books are now more widely available, however, are working overtime to meet the newly increased demand from e-reader users.
According to Wired, the borrowing process in this instance is not much different from standard borrowing. Library patrons download their e-books of choice and enjoy the same features available in purchased e-books, and can renew the book or buy it when the borrowing period ends.
(photo via Harvard Divinity School)
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