While I love my Amazon Kindle, one thing that’s always bugged me about it is that you can’t borrow library ebooks on it, as you can with other ereaders like the Kobo and Sony Reader. So I was excited when, a few months ago, Amazon announced that it was planning to offer public library book lending on the Kindle in the near future in partnership with Overdrive.
Overdrive is the same company that offers ebook lending on the Kobo and Sony Reader at many Canadian libraries — including in Vancouver — so I was hoping that meant library lending would be coming to Canadian Kindle users too.
Unfortunately, when Amazon and Overdrive formally launched the library lending service late last month, it came with one big caveat: the service would only be available through U.S. public libraries. Not Canada. Not Australia. Not the UK.
OK, I thought, Amazon is a U.S. company so it makes sense that it would launch in the U.S. first. But surely a Canadian service is just around the corner, right?
Wrong.
I emailed both Amazon and Overdrive about when they planned to offer library lending for Canadian Kindle users and the response was not encouraging.
Here’s Stephanie Mantello from Amazon:
” Customers can now borrow Kindle books from more than 11,000 local libraries in the United States. Unfortunately, I can’t speculate on what we may or may not do in the future “
And here’s David Burleigh from Ovedrive:
” At this time, Amazon and OverDrive have announced the compatibility of Kindle with library eBooks only in the U.S. Unfortunately, there is no news to announce at this time regarding other countries ”
I’m sorry I can’t be of more help at this time.
No “we’re working on it”. No “we value our Canadian Kindle users and hope to announce something soon”. Just a simple no comment — which, to my mind, suggests library lending isn’t in the cards for non-U.S. Kindle users anytime soon.
Unfortunately, the lack of library lending for Kindle users in Canada is part of a worrying trend.
As I’ve written before, the Kindle’s ebook selection is significantly worse in Canada than it is in the U.S. — including, in some cases, popular ebooks disappearing from the store altogether after a few weeks. And it clearly isn’t a problem with Canadian publishers, as many titles that aren’t available in Canada on the Kindle are available on the Kobo.
And there are other ways in which Amazon snubs its Canadian customers.
The ability to lend someone your ebooks on Kindle for a couple of weeks is available only to Kindle users in the U.S. And while Amazon announced a whole new line of Kindles last week, the two best ones — the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire — are available to U.S. customers only.
Canadians only have the choice of the original Kindle 3 (now called the “Kindle Keyboard”) or the cheapest, most basic Kindle which reminds me of the original, lame one-button Kobo.
As Paid Content has argued, Amazon really isn’t a global company in the same way Apple — which makes its iPad available in 64 countries — is. Amazon appears to build its devices and services for a U.S. market first and foremost, with the rest of the world just an afterthought.
This raises some important questions for those shopping for an ebook reader. I still believe that, as a device, the Amazon Kindle remains the best ebook reader out there, better than the sometimes-buggy Kobo Touch. But ereaders are part of an entire ecosystem that includes things like overall ebook selection and library lending.
And, increasingly, at least in Canada, Kobo’s ecosystem beats the Kindle’s hands down. As a result, if someone were to ask me today whether they should buy a Kobo or a Kindle, I’m not sure which I’d recommend.
You’ve got great insights about Libraly Books, eBooks, keep up the good work !!
When will The Kindle Library public ebooks will be available in Canada?
There are no news leak about that, I will update for you when it’s available.
Thanks for the news, I love to visit libraly in canada more than load borrow from Kindle library ebooks.
I just ordered a Kindle Touch yesterday and I’m anxiously awaiting its arrival to Toronto. In the meantime I’ve begun browsing the books I want to buy first. I found that some of the titles are not available to Canadian customers. However, I’ve also seen that you can change the mailing address associated with the Kindle. I’m wondering if any Canadian Kindle users have tried this. Can I simply enter a US address on my “Manage my Kindle” page and unlock all the Kindle books available to the US?
Thanks.
Hey Paul,
You can change your address to a US one, no credit card check required. I’ve changed it back and forth a couple times. Just be sure to be in a wifi zone for the download, or else you may be charged roaming.
For Kobo and Kobo Touch in Canada you can borrow ebooks from the libraries now. But With Amazon Kindle you have to use some knowledge to conversion to get Canadian Library books loaded on your Kindle.
You’ve got two options for library books on the Kindle.
For Mobipocket format books, which the Kindle would read natively if it weren’t for Amazon not supporting the original DRM of the file format they bought and paid for, you can read them after using two computer scripts that give you
a) a valid Mobipocket PID for the Overdrive servers to generate a properly encoded book file
b) which the second script then “fixes” so that the Kindle recognizes it as a readable file
This does not break the DRM, not that that’s currently a concern in Canada, unless our Heritage Minister gets his way with his corporate-pandering copy-protection bill (C-32, if you want to write your MP to vote against it).
However, Mobipocket is rapidly becoming a minority format in most library systems (I think I might have read somewhere that either Overdrive is not renewing the licenses, or Amazon is not allowing the licenses to be renewed).
For ePub and PDF formats, you’ll have to strip the DRM and convert at least the ePubs to Mobipocket format before you can read them on the Kindle. It’s not hard, but it helps if you’re comfortable doing computer stuff.
I suggest checking your library’s ebook catalogue to make sure it’s got a decent selection, and if you live near the border, see if there’s a reciprocal lending agreement in place between your regional district and the neighbouring state’s county library systems.
In theory, I could get access to both BC and Washington’s province/state-wide ebook catalogues on the strength of my FVRL card, provided I crossed the border and filled out some paperwork at one of the Whatcom branches.
For the one who love to borrow ebooks from local public libralies in Canada, Kobo is the best choices due to Most of ebooks libralies are in ePubs format that compatible to any Kobo model…
But For the one who use Kindle, It’s easy three step to get that public libraly ebooks in Canada on your Kindle
1. Get the book onto your computer, usually through Adobe Digital Editions
2. Decrypt and strip DRM
3. Load onto Kindle through Calibre.
Once the initial setup is done, it’s a quick and relatively painless process.
Good luck & Happy reading!
I think Kobo will suit for library ebooks lover in canada, Because it’s support epub format. You havn’t waste time messy on conversion of the file.