On Wednesday, Amazon announced that Kindle books will be available for lending at more than 11,000 public and school libraries, allowing readers with Kindles or the Kindle app to download Kindle e-books free of charge.
Although libraries have offered e-books for several years now, their offerings were only compatible with ePub-enabled devices such as smartphones, iPads, the Sony Reader and the Nook. The new arrangement allows libraries to expand their digital collections to the nation's most popular e-reading platform.
According to Christian Science Monitor correspondent Molly Driscoll, this should create be a big increase in the demand for library e-books. Not all Kindle e-books will be available to library patrons, however; some publishers, including Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, don't permit libraries to lend their e-books, and other publishers -- like HarperCollins -- have instituted a lend-limit.