Coming soon: Amazon's Kindle books can be borrowed from local libraries

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Market leader: The Kindle Lending Library will be available in 11,000 local libraries They've changed the way millions of people read - and now Amazon are taking the world of e-books to another level.The company has announced that it is to introduce the Kindle Lending Library later this year.Users of its popular e-reader will be able to check out and 'borrow' Amazonian e-books from 11,000 public libraries across the states.You will be able to read the borrowed e-book on a Kindle, or on the Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry or Windows Phone using the Kindle app, the company said.Amazon Kindle director Jay Marine said: 'We're excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries.'He added that the service will be available to all three generations of Kindles.The Kindle Lending Library will be powered by digital-content provider OverDrive. That company is already providing e-book services to the libraries that will be working with Amazon, by offering library-lending services to owners of the Sony Reader.

Sony's device has to date proven far less popular than Amazon's, who have market share of just over 60 per cent.Kindle users will not only be able to borrow e-books, they will be able to make notes, in a way similar to writing in pencil in the margin, and make bookmarks, theregister.co.uk reports.Your annotations won't be seen by other borrowers of the same title, but if you should choose to later buy a previously-borrowed book, or just borrow it again, they will appear in it.

Whole new world: The 11,000 participating public libraries will still carry paper books, but they will exist alongside Amazon's e-books Mr Marine said: 'We're doing a little something extra here. Because n! ormally, 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.
'Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. 'Amazon would not give an exact date for the release of the library service. It also did not say how many books you can take out at once and for how long. The service would only be available to people who already have a Kindle or other applicable device. The devices themselves are not for hire.
The first Kindles were released in America on November 19, 2007, for $399. The product sold out in five and a half hours and the device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008.The Kindle 3, which came out last summer, is available in two versions. There's the Kindle Wi-Fi, priced at $139, which connects to the internet exclusively via public or private Wi-Fi networks. The other version is priced at $189 and includes both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The latest version is half an inch shorter and narrower.Apple's iBooks, are only readable on iOS devices and there is no public library service.
An American Library Association report recently showed that 72 per cent of public libraries offer e-books and five per cent of American adults own an e-book reader.
The ALA said that e-books account for only a small percentage of borrowed items from most libraries, but they are the fastest-growing segment. The Chicago Public Library, for example, doubled its circulation of e-books from 17,000 in 2009 to more than 36,000 in 2010.