My TouchPad Today: Kindle Library Books - Not Ready for Prime Time?

Since an announcement from Amazon earlier this year I had eagerly been awaiting the debut of borrowing Kindle library books.

A few weeks ago I heard that the program had begun and went about getting myself in on the action

It wasn't extremely difficult, but it certainly wasn't a breeze either.

Here -- more or less -- is a recap of my experience...

- Learned on Overdrive.com that I would need a valid library card and would be borrowing through the regional library network of which my town is a member
- Discovered that my local library card had expired, but couldn't be renewed online
- Visited the library and told the librarian that I wanted to renew/reactivate my card so that I could borrow Kindle books.
- Asked for my current phone number by the librarian as she reactivated my card and updated my "account"
- Discovered, online back at home, that my regional library network needs my local library card/account to have an email address added to it
- Sent email to the local library asking them to add my email address to my card/account
- Found the following afternoon that I was able to register for electronic borrowing with my regional library network, although my local library never confirmed/acknowledged that my email address was added to my account
- Perused the slim offerings available from my regional library network on Overdrive.com... most of what's available is already out on loan or has one or more borrowers on a wait list
- Put myself on a wait list for Piecework by Pete Hamill

Fast forward to last week...

- Received email advising that my requested Kindle book was now available
- Followed link to my regional library network
- Sent to Amazon for the download part of the checkout process

My Current Recommendation/Bottom Line...

- Great concept that will become useful with some refinement of the Overdrive.com /regional library network/local library parts of the picture
- Selection of books will hopefully improve in the future. Though for now, a number of publishers are dragging their feet on making electronic library copies available
- There's no need to hurry in getting onboard with Kindle borrowing, unless you have the constitution to deal with a system/program that is not quite ready for prime time



This post was written on my TouchPad


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