Many have predicted the eventual demise of physical books, as e-book readers and e-book demand soars.
Publishers have largely resisted e-book library lending because they're concerned it might undermine their own e-book sales.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
The company has spent heavily on promoting its e-book reader, the Nook, and e-book sales in its stores.
Another interesting fact from the study: e-book borrowers are avid e-book buyers.
Close on the heels of the launch of its e-book store in Brazil, Amazon announced the launch of its Kindle e-book store in China last Thursday.
FORBES: Amazon Can Drive Big Kindle Growth With China Launch
She said the popularity of e-readers and tablet computers as Christmas presents had also helped to make January Surrey's busiest e-book month so far, with 2, 469 e-book loans.
Guests not keen on paying for an e-book they might have to abandon halfway through can choose from the 15, 000 free titles in Amazon's free e-book collection.
Pew also found that 12% of all Americans age 16 and older who read e-books have borrowed an e-book from a library in the past year -- and they're generally pretty happy with the experience.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
Formatting and layout of text in the e-book may be different, but the informational content of an e-book will not differ in any substantive respect from that of a tangible, printed copy of the same book.
According to the complaint, the five publishers and Apple were unhappy that competition among e-book sellers had reduced e-book prices and the retail profit margins of the book sellers to levels they thought were too low.
Earlier this year, Pew research found that about one in five U.S. adults have read an e-book in the past year, and that e-book users tend to read over 30% more books per year than people who only read printed material.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
Some library patrons reported waiting lists for popular e-books, or that the library e-book wasn't offered in a format compatible with their device.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
In fact, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - not released as an e-book - was typed out and released online illegally within 24 hours of release.
But, interestingly, slightly more library e-books borrowers told Pew that when they want to find an e-book, the first place they look is an online bookstore -- not the library.
CNN: E-book lending: Your public library's best kept secret?
As well as being used for in-store signage, E Ink's technology powers Sony's e-book reader, and in April, Seiko, a watchmaker, unveiled a digital watch built around an E Ink display.
"After the hyper growth in the e-book market over the last few years, consumers have settled into their book formats of choice, and while e-books will continue to drive growth in the book category in the future, physical book sales will have a longer tail (or longer life expectancy) than previously anticipated, " he said in a call with investors.
The Nook competes against Amazon's Kindle e-reader, as well as Apple and Google in the e-book market.
The iBookstore and the iPad went hand in hand and it was a promise to publishers that they would have more than one major customer for e-books, diversifying their market and helping build the overall e-book industry.
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HarperCollins sells e-books to libraries at prices comparable to those it charges consumers, but each e-book can only be lent out 26 times until the library has to buy another copy.
Now that it has nailed the e-book business, E Ink is diversifying again.
Consider the hundreds of millions that have been spent to apply new technologies--the Internet and e-book displays, specifically--to reshape the college textbook industry.
Just wait till the baby-boom generation gets a little older and the typeface on the e-book gets more readable--it might even climb to No. 1.
The tiny super-computer also boasts an impressive array of mega-hot software like Word, Excel, a picture browser, an e-book reader, paint brush -- the list literally goes on and on.
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"We've used our expertise to create a high-quality e-book with today's on-the-go consumer in mind, " said Young Bae, director of display marketing, Samsung Information Technology Division.
ENGADGET: Samsung announces E6 and E10 e-book readers at CES
For book publishing companies, e-readers present another way to sell their products and a way to get things to print faster, as an e-book can be distributed faster than a paper copy.
More than 20 million flexible plastic displays are on the market today, according to Sriram Peruvemba, vice-president of marketing for E Ink, the company that developed the low-power display technology for the Amazon Kindle and many other e-book readers.
Aside from such glaring omissions as a basic camera and external LCD, it does sport a very pocket-friendly design, simplistic style, MP3 playback, an electronic dictionary, questionable e-book functionality, GPS, and 128MB of built-in memory.
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The display self-adjusts to become an ultra-high contrast e-book reader in bright sunlight, and a bright full-color backlit display in normal light.
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Over 80% of Fire owners have purchased an e-book, and 58% had purchased more than three e-books within 15-60 days of buying the Fire.
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