Chris Crenshaw is a voracious reader.
Between the libraries on UF's campus and the public county libraries, he reads about five books a week. The 25-year-old history junior will read just about anything, but he prefers historical books, especially ones with ties to the South.
He has a Kindle, but like many book lovers, he prefers to read "real" books.
After the Alachua County Public Library District announced that patrons will now be able to borrow e-books through their Kindles, Crenshaw said he'll probably start reading more books on the device.
Amazon announced the beginning of its partnership with library e-book vendor OverDrive Wednesday morning, and the program immediately went live.
Under the partnership, about 11,000 public and school libraries nationwide will be able to lend books directly through the nation's most popular e-reading platform - the Kindle and the Kindle app.
Library patrons can search the book catalog on the Alachua County Library website where there will now be a "Send to Kindle" option.
After entering their library card number, Kindle users will be redirected to Amazon.com where they can log in and have the book delivered to their device via Wi-Fi or USB.
Once on the Kindle, the book will be available for two weeks. After that time, the license will expire and the e-book will go back into circulation. Only one person can check out a copy at a time.
The borrowed books will have almost all of the features of purchased Kindle books, including the ability to save margin notes, according to a press release.
Nickie Kortus, spokeswoman for the Alachua County library system, said the library had been preparing for the launch of this feature for a while but never had a set launch date.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Kindle feature was up-and-running on the library's website. Kortus said the only glitches to date have been with readers attempting to access texts via mobile phone apps.
The Alachua County library system has offered e-books through OverDrive since 2008, said Kortus.
These books were downloadable to a PC or an iPad but were not modified for specific e-reader devices.
Not all books available in hard copy will be available in e-book format. Some publishing companies, like Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, have refused to give libraries the rights to lend their e-books.
The Alachua County libraries currently offer 5,262 Kindle book titles. Just like the physical branches, the e-branch has multiple copies of many titles based on popularity. The library has 9,000 e-books available for checkout.
Kortus said the library, like the rest of the country, has seen a huge growth in e-book circulation.
In 2010, the county's e-branch saw 58,341 checkouts. So far this year, there have been 105,591 checkouts - a number Kortus expects to increase even more following the Kindle agreement.
"We're so excited to have this addition to the services that we can provide our patrons," she said. "People now have another choice of how they can read."
