Stanford University was an early customer to allow easy searches of its Socrates online library catalog.

FORBES: Finding Meaning In A Google World

The searches may be conducted on-site at the library or via an online catalog, which will be accessible via the library's World Wide Web site at www.loc.gov.

CNN: LOC Web site to offer access to holdings

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?

That looks to be on the tentative mend, as the publisher and 3M have together cut deals with the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library to bring Penguin's e-book catalog back as part of a test program.

ENGADGET: Penguin slinks back into e-book lending for New York City libraries, with a possible catch