1. for International payers, Fictionwise FAILS to state monies are in USD so if you pay 20 bucks Au you’ll find double gone from your bank.

2. Fictionwise is all about using the people’s money but a lot of socalled ebooks wont download and they keep your money while you get sweet nothing. This is equivalent to a crime.

I’ve emailed both – one to praise, one to question – and was basically told that the library systems give them a limited amount of money to buy ebooks. My local library contact told me they weren’t buying any more mobipocket formatted books (although they do show up new on the site every now and then) because the majority of borrowers want Adobe.

The second thanked me for my interest and said they’d continue to offer them as long as there was interest in the format.

I appreciate their concern – but in my mind it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Don’t offer mobi, and mobi users won’t come looking for them. I almost never visit my local library’s ebooks site any more. It just isn’t worth the time. The sad thing is, I won’t know if they ever change their policy…

I love the idea of the lending libraries so I don’t have to buy every modern book I read. I have spent some time looking at online ebook libraries specifically for mobipocket books.

The fictionwise library software is available for libraries to purchase, you can find who has them by looking up “libwise.com” in a search engine. Most require your local library card number to check out books. Each library can choose how long books can be checked out and how many books at a time.

This one is free to everyone and specializes in SF genre. http://www.libwise.com/loqui/ I believe they only have 42 books at this time.

Libwise does let you put a book on hold if it’s checked out. It doesn’t give you how many days you have to wait, but does indicate how many people are in line before you.

Few of the ebook collections I’ve looked at, either on Overdrive or Libwise have large mobipocket collections yet. I think New York public libraries have a large collection, but they want $100/yr to join, and they neglected to reply to emails I had sent them.

Some of the Overdrive libraries (maybe some of the Libwise libraries too?) will sell you a library card for a year if you don’t live in their district, but in my opinion they are mostly asking way too much money and their collections are way too small for it to be worthwhile.

I have learned that while my local library system doesn’t have ebooks available, I can get a card from a larger parish (county) nearby on some kind of interlibrary trade system. I haven’t done that yet because I have to drive to the distant library to get a card (they won’t do it by mail) and their small collection doesn’t make the drive worth the time and money and effort. Just saying . . . maybe there is some way others can gain access to online libraries in their area for free or for a reasonable amount of money.

Thanks for this post. I hope these online libraries become much bigger and more common in the near future.