The Internet Archive's Open Library is now offering e-book loans.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Checking out digital versions of books that are automatically returned after two weeks is as easy as logging onto the Internet Archive’s Open Library site, announced digital librarian and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. By integrating this new service, more than seventy thousand current books—best sellers and popular titles—are borrowable by patrons of libraries that subscribe to Overdrive.com's Digital Library Reserve. Additionally, many other books that are not commercially available but are still of interest to library patrons, are available to be borrowed from participating libraries using the same digital technology. . . .
Currently, OpenLibrary.org is making available:
- More than one million digital versions of older books are now available for free download in a variety of formats.
- Over 70,000 current digital books to those with a library card from many of the over 11,000 libraries that subscribe to the OverDrive service.
- Genealogical books from the Boston Public Library.
- How-to and technical book collection via the Internet Archive.
- Marine life reference materials from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
- Spanish texts from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.
Read more about it at "Libraries Have a Novel Idea" and "Small Moves: Open Library Integrates Digital Lending."