As E-Readers Explode, So Does E-Book Library Lending

When the con­cept of libraries lend­ing out e-books first came about, the idea had its skep­tics. Some in the pub­lish­ing indus­try wor­ried that the prac­tice could eat into e-book sales, while oth­ers ques­tioned whether such a sys­tem would be pop­u­lar or effec­tive among con­sumers. Some recent sta­tis­tics sug­gest that library e-book lend­ing is tak­ing off.

Dri­ven in large part by the pro­lif­er­a­tion of tablets and e-read­ers, dig­i­tal book lend­ing is on the rise, accord­ing to Over­Drive, a lead­ing sup­pli­er of dig­i­tal con­tent to U.S. libraries. The com­pa­ny, which part­nered with Ama­zon for its Kin­dle lend­ing pro­gram, report­ed recent­ly that it saw a 130% increase in traf­fic to its “vir­tu­al branch” web­sites last year. Over­Drive works with 18,000 libraries to offer e-books and other dig­i­tal con­tent to mem­bers………

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-book_library_lending_growth.php

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