Library offers new electronic book format

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Public Library says it has become the first library in the nation to offer patrons a new electronic book format that digital publishers are advocating as an industry standard.

Last week, the library and its 29 affiliate library systems in the Clevnet Consortium rolled out a format called “epub” that allows patrons to read electronic books and play audio books, music and video on a wider range of devices.

The new format will be available initially on about 140 of the library system’s 24,000 e-book files, and that number will grow daily.

The International Digital Publishing Forum, a trade organization, supports use of the “epub” format as a way to make the files more widely compatible and therefore easier for readers to use.

“As more libraries begin to offer electronic books, epub is the format that they’re putting out into the market,” said Michael Smith, the publishing forum’s executive director. “I think reading habits are going to change in a big way.”

The New York and Chicago library systems are among those that will begin using the new format in the next few months, said David Burleigh of the Cleveland-based company OverDrive, which sells e-books to libraries.

The format resizes type to fit different sizes of screens, he said. It is compatible with PC and Mac computers and the handheld Sony Reader, but not with Amazon’s Kindle reader.

Electronic lending is nothing new for the Cleveland library, where patrons have been able to “borrow” e-books since 2003 using a downloading system similar to an online shopping site. They downloaded more than 108,000 items in 2008.

The site has a dedicated following from library patrons, library spokeswoman Tena Wilson said, adding that the formats are growing along with the e-book collection.