Benjamin Franklin: statesman, author, postmaster, inventor of the bifocal, the lending library and the Franklin stove.
Expect many new Kindle users to look at Prime and the lending library as a benefit and sign up.
FORBES: Amazon Looking To Convert UK Prime Members to Kindle With Book Lending Library
The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is heavily used by Kindle owners, and it has extremely unusual features that both authors and customers love.
Amazon announced today that the entire Harry Potter saga will be available for free for all Prime subscribers in the Kindle Lending Library.
FORBES: Good News For Amazon Prime Members: 'Harry Potter' Coming Soon To The Kindle Library
What is more surprising, perhaps, is how few books are borrowed from the Commons library (although it is more of a reference than a lending library).
Before the end of the month, Amazon Prime members will be able to access the Kindle Book Lending Library, giving them access to over 200, 000 eBooks on their Kindle tablets.
FORBES: Amazon Looking To Convert UK Prime Members to Kindle With Book Lending Library
And those who yearn for something a bit more traditional, perhaps even in a frame, should try dropping by the Mitchell Library where art duo Walker and Bromwich have set up an art lending library.
With Prime, Kindle owners can read for free - choose from over 180, 000 books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, including all 7 Harry Potter books in 5 languages and over 100 current and former New York Times bestsellers, to borrow for free - as frequently as a book a month, with no waiting and no due dates.
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But evidence indicates that publishers may not have much to fear from library e-book lending -- just like they haven't been hurt by library lending of print editions of current bestsellers.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
Additionally, while older Penguin books will still be available in certain eBook formats for lending, none will be available for library lending for the Amazon Kindle.
FORBES: Penguin Group Has Halted Library Lending For E-Books
Sony continues to offer its popular and critically-acclaimed public library lending feature by offering patrons with a valid library card the ability to easily and conveniently borrow free e-books wirelessly from over 15, 000 public libraries in the US via an intuitive, simple-to-use dedicated icon on the device.
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Overdrive, which powers the back-end of e-book lending for thousands of libraries, has confirmed that Penguin is no longer allowing library lending of its new titles.
FORBES: Penguin Group Has Halted Library Lending For E-Books
The annual report by the Public Lending Right (PLR), who oversee payments to authors for the loan of their books, also revealed that library lending had dropped by around 4% in 2012, with 200 branches closing over the past year.
Publishers have largely resisted e-book library lending because they're concerned it might undermine their own e-book sales.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
So why is the publishing industry in a huff about e-book library lending?
The Digital Shift blog is reporting that as of today, Penguin Group USA will no longer permit any library lending of its new e-book titles.
FORBES: Penguin Group Has Halted Library Lending For E-Books
Penguin, for instance, is embarking on its library lending pilot with e-book distributor (and German industrial giant) 3M, some say because it may not want to do business with OverDrive.
Going the digital route has certainly been a growing trend -- 3M recently launched a Cloud Library lending service while one Austrian town kicked off its own unique e-book repository based on stickers equipped with QR codes and NFC chips.
Random House is the only major publisher to make e-books of its entire catalog available to any public library for unrestricted lending.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
Of the six largest publishers in the U.S., only two have full-fledged library e-book lending programs: HarperCollins and Random House.
At least one major publisher is warming up to library e-book lending.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
Before libraries and publishers can come together and agree how to solve the problem of library e-book lending, they probably will have to understand each other.
Modernise library services to expand the provision of superfast broadband and e-book lending.
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