Via the New York Times, Amazon’s Kindle is to join the Barnes & Nobel’s Nook, Sony’s E-reader, and the Kobo reader in allowing for library books to be compatible with the Kindle.  Kindle users will be able to read e-books from more than 11,000 public libraries on their devices beginning later this year.

We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries, Jay Marine, director of Kindle at Amazon, said in a statement.

E-book use in libraries has been growing at a rapid pace, particularly in the last year as more consumers have bought e-readers. The New York Public Library said last month that e-book use in its system was 36 percent higher than it was one year ago.