E Books Coming to Knox Co.

VINCENNES, IND. (WTHI) - A southern Indiana library is turning to technology to carry out a big expansion.

The Knox County Public Library will soon have a service where patrons can check out thousands of books 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and never leave home.

The library is on the verge of offering an e-book service.

The Knox County Library is showing no signs of construction, but its selection of book titles is on the cusp of growing by almost 40,000.

Instead of putting these titles in the stacks, the library is about to open a service providing e-books.

"Patrons are so excited about this new service," said Library Director Emily Bunyan. "It's another format for the written word and we're delighted to offer this new format for our patrons."

The library is putting the finishing touches on the website and the system that will allow anyone with a library card to download books.

Officials say the e-book system is something people wanted.

"e-readers like a Nook or a kindle, I think almost every family, someone, some family member received a Kindle or Nook for Christmas," said Assistant Library Director Steven Smith.

You can put as many as 3,000 books on some e-readers, but under the system the library is going to use patrons will be able to download a limited number of books and keep them for a limited time.

The library plans to continue to operate with the hardbacks on the shelves.

The e-books may be the future, but officials say there could be more to come.

"It's part of the future, yes," said Smith. "I'm not sure we see the complete future."

At least it appears you will be able to read about the future here in hardback or at home on the latest device.

Library officials say they have spent about $4,000 on the new system.

They hope to have it up and running next week.