The Kindle has taken off as a successful e-reader but a big failing has been the inability to get ebooks offered by your local public library. The format wars of ebooks has been a long one with no clear winner. The .epub format has been the most widely adopted with almost all devices except Kindle supporting them. Amazon’s closed format remains but thanks to a partnership with OverDrive, libraries that partner with OverDrive should be getting Kindle books added to their digital collections. This move was announced back in June by OverDrive and it has been much anticipated as another factor in the “what e-reader/tablet should I get?” conundrum.
Amazon announced the news in a press release this morning. You can visit www.amazon.com/kindle/publiclibraries for more information about getting library books on your Kindle or Kindle apps across all sorts of devices. You will visit your library’s website to get to the digital collection.
Customers will use their local library’s website to search for and select a book to borrow. Once they choose a book, customers can choose to “Send to Kindle” and will be redirected to Amazon.com to login to their Amazon.com account and the book will be delivered to the device they select via Wi-Fi, or can be transferred via USB. Customers can check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any generation Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry or Windows Phone, as well as in their web browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
“This is a welcome day for Kindle users in libraries everywhere and especially our Kindle users here at The Seattle Public Library,” said Marcellus Turner, city librarian for The Seattle Public Library. “We’re thrilled that Amazon is offering such a new approach to library ebooks that enhances the reader experience.”
My local library uses OverDrive, so I should be able to test this out but for now it still says “coming soon”. If only I knew a librarian to ask…