S&S expands their ebook library program….

Libraries across the United States can now access the entire catalog of ebooks published by Simon & Schuster. The announcement concludes a pilot program the publisher had conducted with twenty library systems.

Libraries can now purchase one-year licenses to lend individual ebooks to patrons. As with physical books, only one patron can borrow a title at a time, but the library can lend every ebook it acquires an unlimited number of times within that one-year period.

The program includes all of Simon & Schuster’s front-list and back-list titles, with new releases being made available to libraries upon their release.

This is very cool news. I am a HUGE supporter of libraries (my parents would have gone broke with three voraciously-reading kids, if we didn’t have an excellent local library) and digital needs to be as widely available as print, IMO.

Okay, the fact that S&S publishes both my mysteries and the upcoming fantasy novels (as well as the Vineart War trilogy) makes this relevant to me as a writer, but I’m mostly squeeing as a reader.

And here’s a nice in-your-eye to Amazon: “In addition, libraries participating in the program will be functioning as ebook retailers for Simon & Schuster. Patrons can now purchase titles through libraries’ Web portals, with the library receiving a cut of each sale.”