Announced way back in April, Kindle’s eBook lending service is now live – at least for folks living in Seattle. There have been reports of users noticing the appearance of the Kindle download option on the sites of two library systems – the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System. And some of them have even reported successfully using the new download option to get books from the aforementioned libraries.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the Kindle library eBook lending service, it basically allows all Kindle users to rent books from libraries – without having to step out of the house. Talk about convenience! However, books can only be checked out for up to 21 days (at least for the Seattle Public Library), and a limited copies of each book are available despite them being electronic – it’s all based on usage licenses. No word on when this feature will roll out to other states in the country, but this beta testing stage is probably being used to weed out all the problems and bugs before it’s introduced elsewhere.