Starting later this week, Kobo owners will be able to use their e-reader to borrow and read library books.
On Tuesday, the Toronto-based company announced that its current lineup of e-readers — Aura One, Aura H20 Edition 2, Aura Edition 2 and Clara HD — will all support OverDrive starting on August 25th.
OverDrive is a service that allows users to borrow e-books from their local library. In 2015, it was acquired by Kobo parent company Rakuten.
To take advantage of the feature, Kobo owners need a valid library card from a public library that has an agreement with OverDrive. More details can be found on Kobo’s website.
According to Kobo, approximately 2,000 libraries across Canada, including the Toronto Public Library (TPL), support OverDrive. Together, those 2,000 libraries represent approximately 70 percent of all the libraries in Canada. The Toronto Public Library currently holds the distinction of lending the most digital books in the world — in July, TPL became the first library in the world to lend 20 million e-books.
To find out if your public library has an agreement with OverDrive, visit the company’s website.
Kobo first started testing book borrowing back when it launched the Aura One. At the time, the company found that the average Aura One user would read 30 percent more than other Kobo users thanks to the added functionality.
OverDrive is also available on smartphones via an app called Libby, which is downloadable on both iOS and Android.
Source: Kobo
