Lending eBooks

EBookUpdate introduced the website Kindle Lending Club yesterday. After taking a quick look at the website, I sent the link to my friend Josh who owns a Kindle and he asked me if Amazon has any official comments about the website. We somewhat assumed that the website enabled sharing among Kindle users and then people start borrowing books for FREE instead of buying them from Kindle store.

HOWEVER, that is not the case. The FAQ states clearly:

Any Kindle book that has lending enabled can be loaned by one Kindle user to another for 14 days. At the end of the loan period the title is automatically transferred back to the book owners Kindle.  Each Kindle book you own can only be loaned once.

Kindle Lending Club conforms to Amazon's policy and the website provides a platform for users to discover potential loaners and borrowers to increase use of the book by sharing with others.

Amazon launched Kindle lending feature on December 30, 2010 and such function has been supported in Barnes and Noble's Nook for several months. According to Lending Kindle Books and Nook User Guide, the lending services have much in common:

• Not all the ebooks can be lent. Amazon says " it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending."
• Only ebook owners can lend the ebook. "You cannot lend an ebook that has been lent to you". 
• Each ebook can be loaned only ONCE for a 14-day period.
• During the loaning period, the original owner cannot read the book.
• After the 14-day period, the ebook will return to its owner automatically. The borrower cannot save/archive lent ebooks.

Amazon allows users to lend ebooks to anyone they choose, with or without Kindle while Barnes and Noble requires ebooks could only be lent to Nook users with registered Nook.

I also did some search for lending options for Sony eReader, but it seems that Sony does not provide such option.

As a library science student, I'm particularly interested in how to circulate ebooks in libraries. Currently, some libraries circulate epub books with DRM via Overdrive and Adobe Digital Editions, (this post tells you how to borrow ebooks from local library). Sony ebookstore does not have as many titles as Amazon or B&N, but Sony's partnership with Google Books and Overdrive bring users to millions of books in public domain and books available in libraries. Nook users can also checkout ebooks from libraries 'cause the device also supports epub format.  Although Kindle has massive market share, Kindle users cannot use library loaned ebooks from libraries because Amazon declines to support epub.

But there are exceptions. Gerrit van Dyk introduced Kindle ILL model in Brigham Young University,

the item is purchased, uploaded to a device, the device is then deregistered (this prevents users from purchasing on our Amazon account) and delivered along with a charger through our faculty delivery service to the patron. Upon return, the device is emptied of all titles (except for the Kindle user guide), reregistered to our ILL Amazon account, and plugged into a charger, to await the next request.

Note that the library is not only checking out Kindle ebook, but Kindle the device as well. I completely agree what Gerrit said in comment, "it would be better to have licenses where libraries just offer the content to the user on their own device". Checking out Kindles with Kindle ebooks is not feasible in many libraries and usage will be very limited compared to offering the content. Plus, there is potential copyright issues against Amazon's Terms of Use (Gerrit's brief pilot project was discontinued). 

The list created a year and a half ago listed libraries lending Kindles and absolutely more libraries have joined the team. I'm curious if there are any other ways to circulate Kindle ebooks but I highly doubt that. It's time for Amazon to join the epub club or add license feature for libraries.

I need to say I'm not an eReader user up to now. Please let me know if I got anything wrong. I really appreciate.

Update: 3:57pm, 01/20/2011

I happened to notice that NYPL has ebooks in Mobipocket format (.mobi) and according to Wikipedia, .mobi ebooks can be read on Kindle. I guess Kindle users (and non-Kindles users using PC application) can checkout these books from library, but the number of titles will be very limited compared to epub books.

Wikipedia entries about Kindle and ebook file format (provides comprehensive comparison tables of features and supporting hardware).