Kindle eBooks available around clock at library

Web site offers service free to device users

The new service preserves annotations and bookmarks made by a reader if the same library user checks it out again. The service is from a Cleveland firm.

Amazon Kindle owners now have access to Kindle eBooks from the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library around the clock through toledolibrary.org.

The library said users can borrow eBooks to read on any generation Kindle device, free Kindle application, or on their browsers with Kindle Cloud Reader.

Kindle eBooks are available to those with a library card through the library’s downloadable media page and on “Get for Kindle.”

The library’s eBooks provide the same features as Kindle and Kindle books, such as synchronized notes, highlights, last page read feature, and real page numbers.

“Since the Kindle eReader device name has become synonymous with the ebook experience, we are so thrilled to be able to offer thousands of titles for our Kindle users,” said Tracy Montri, the library’s audiovisual manager.

The downloadable media collection remains available for users of other devices such as the Nook by Barnes & Noble or the Sony Reader.

The service is available through the OverDrive, which said it will be updating all U.S. public and school library partner Web sites to support Kindle compatibility.

Users browsing the library site will see a message that Kindle is either “now available” or advised that a title will be coming soon.

Once signed in, library users select which Kindle device or free Kindle application they want to use for reading. Getting a Kindle book can be completed from Web browsers on personal computer, Mac, iPad, and other tablet devices.

As with other titles from the library’s digital collection, the eBook will expire at the end of the lending period.

But after a public library book expires, if a user checks it out again or buys it from the Kindle store, all of the annotations and bookmarks the patron had made will be preserved.

OverDrive of Cleveland, founded in 1986, is a digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital content used by more than 15,000 libraries, schools, and colleges worldwide.