Kindle Books Coming Soon to a Library Near You

Amazon Kindle books will soon be available for checkout at your local library.  Today, Amazon announced that over 11,000 libraries will begin lending Kindle books to patrons later this year.

While some libraries have implemented systems where they would lend Kindle devices, this move by Amazon will allow the libraries to temporarily place the ebooks on your Kindle.  When you are finished, the book “returns” to the library.

Best of all, while you have it checked out, you can make the normal margin notes and highlights, and those notes will show up again if you recheck the book or buy it from Amazon at a later date.  But unlike when you decide to doodle on a print library book, the next borrower will not see your notes.

To kick off the new service, Amazon is partnering with OverDrive, a company that provides digital content solutions to public, school, corporate, and academic libraries.  And in case you were wondering, anything involving OverDrive will likely involve DRM.  With the current technology, however, there may not be another way to borrow and then return digital books.

“We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” said Jay Marine, Director of Amazon Kindle.

Amazon is excited about the new service, and the libraries that will soon offer Kindle books should be excited as well.  As with many government services, public libraries have suffered during the economic recession.  Adding a Kindle ebook collection may be the boost they need.