Amazon Announces The Kindle Lending Library, Will Support Whispersync For Notes, Highlights & Last Read Page

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Amazon has just announced the latest feature for the Kindle, the Kindle Lending Library. Though truth be told, as of now this new feature is more of a teaser as it is not set to come available until sometime “later this year.”

That said, the Kindle Lending Library will give users the ability to borrow books from more than 11,000 local libraries. And on top of that, those borrowed books will come with Whispersync support in terms of last page read, note and highlights. How is that, Amazon is sort of encouraging you to make notes in the margins of your borrowed library books.

But speaking a bit more seriously, the Whispersync will come in handy as it will be saved to your Amazon account. In other words, if you ever check out that book again or if you should decide to make a purchase — your notes, highlights and last read page will be ready and waiting.

“We’re doing a little something extra here,” Marine continued. “Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

As for device support, the Kindle Lending Library will work with the hardware Kindle, PC and Mac applications as well as the smartphone and tablet apps including the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.

Otherwise, some of the details are still not confirmed such as the supported libraries and the lending periods. But that aside, Amazon has confirmed that the Kindle Lending Library is going to be using the OverDrive system which should be a perk in that it is an established system.