I don't know where you are, but our library belongs to two different consortia which provide downloadable books to members. (Netlibrary has, for our library, mostly audiobooks and a few ebooks, but the Across Colorado Consortium has a really large selection.) I don't know how much that costs but I imagine less than the price of buying and providing individual books. Also, our library has just started offering a couple of Nooks for check-out, which I would have thought sort of weird but they are very popular.