Storing Annotations on the Cloud: Kindle books at libraries

Image via Wikipedia

Amazon has announced that Kindle books can now be borrowed from local libraries in the US. There are two key points to this announcement –

1. Availability – these books will be available at over 11,000 local libraries.
2. Advantage of ebooks over traditional paper books – customers will be able to take notes & make annotations (which Amazon will store, for free, on its amazing Amazon cloud). Thus if you borrow or buy the book in the future, your notes will still be there.

This may have major implications on consumer buying and consumption habits – for example, no more waiting for a book to get returned (assuming that there will be no limit to the number of Kindle copies of a book that are ‘stocked’ at a given library). Also, the books will feel like personal copies of the book due to the annotations.

Instant access and a personalized book reading experience – guess some folks may decide not to buy a copy of that ol’ book that they revisit once every few years!

Here is the Amazon press release – Kindle Books Now Available at over 11,000 Local Libraries.