According to Amazon (I first saw the announcement on Kindle Review), Amazon will support the ability for Kindle to ‘check out book’ from the Overdrive Library system. I am a fan of Overdrive and have written a review of its Android and iPhone/iPad apps.
Overdrive is something that your library has to subscribe to, but most local library systems do (11,000 of them according to Overdrive). Then you use your regular library card to log in and check out books (either audio or ebook) for 14 to 21 days. Previously all the ebooks were in ePub format and kindle does not support that format. I can envision a time when local libraries are not actual places, but just a data center (or outsourced data center). I hope that point is not soon, but I do like checking out audiobooks from my computer. (I have three checked out right now.)
It is not clear from the press release if the kindle will now support ePub (I doubt it) or if Overdrive is now converting its library to a kindle readable format.
There is not a date for the feature other than “in 2011”. So it may be a while.
But regardless of the time frame, this is a major announcement.
Praise the Lord. This may be the last piece that forces me to get one.
Given the recent advertising supported kindle, I would guess that kindle will have a $99 option by Christmas. But probably not a new kindle this year from what I hear.