As the e-reader and tablet wars heat up, Amazon.com Inc. is launching a digital-book lending library that will be available only to owners of its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices who are also subscribers to its Amazon Prime program.
电子阅读器和平板电脑市场硝烟滚滚之际，亚马逊公司（Amazon.com Inc.）推出了一个电子书借阅图书馆，只向拥有Kindle和Kindle Fire设备并订阅Amazon Prime计划的用户开放。
The program will be limited, at least at the beginning, in what is available to borrow. Amazon will initially offer slightly more than 5,000 titles in the library, including more than 100 current and former national bestsellers, such as Stephen R. Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.'
该图书馆可供借阅的书籍数量有限，至少刚开始是这样。亚马逊一开始会提供5000多本书，包括100多本目前及之前的全美畅销书，比如史蒂芬•柯维（Stephen R. Covey）的《高效能人士的7个习惯》（The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People）。
None of the six largest publishers in the U.S. is participating. Several senior publishing executives said recently they were concerned that a digital-lending program of the sort contemplated by Amazon would harm future sales of their older titles or damage ties to other book retailers.
美国六大出版商都没有参与该计划。几位出版界高管最近说，他们担心亚马逊筹划的这类数字图书借阅计划可能会冲击旧书未来的销售或伤害与其他书籍零售商的关系。
Moreover, Amazon will restrict borrowers to one title at a time, one per month. Borrowers can keep a book for as long as they like, but when they borrow a new title, the previously borrowed book automatically disappears from their device.
此外，亚马逊将限制用户每次只能借阅一本书，每月一本。借阅者想借多久就借多久，但在借阅一本新书时，之前借阅的书就会自动从设备中消失。
The new program, called Kindle Owners' Lending Library, cannot be accessed via apps on other devices, which means it won't work on Apple Inc.'s iPad or iPhone, even though people can read Kindle books on both devices. This restriction is intended to drive Kindle device sales, says Amazon.
亚马逊这项新计划名为"Kindle用户借阅图书馆"（Kindle Owners' Lending Library），用户无法通过其他设备的应用程序进行借阅，也就是说无法在苹果公司的iPad或iPhone上使用，虽然Kindle的电子书可以在iPad或iPhone上阅读。亚马逊说这项限制是为了推动Kindle的销售。
The program, which is effective Thursday, comes a few weeks before Amazon ships the Kindle Fire tablet on Nov. 15, which is a direct competitor with the iPad.
该图书馆已于11月3日上线。亚马逊将于11月15日开始销售与iPad直接竞争的Kindle Fire平板电脑。
The lending library reflects a broader effort by Amazon to lure consumers to Prime, a service that costs $79 a year.
该借阅图书馆反映了亚马逊一项更广泛的努力，即吸引消费者使用Prime服务，Prime每年的服务费为79美元。
Amazon Prime began as a membership plan to offer package-shipping perks. Then, earlier this year Prime added a video-streaming feature to the subscription. Nearly 13,000 movies and TV shows are now available under the streaming feature.
Amazon Prime最初是一个提供运费优惠的会员计划。接着在今年早些时候，Prime为订阅服务增加了视频流媒体功能。目前该功能提供近1.3万部电影和电视剧。
Amazon, the market leader in e-readers, made Kindle titles available to libraries beginning in September and libraries said the impact already has been significant.
作为电子阅读器的市场龙头，亚马逊从9月开始允许用户在图书馆借阅Kindle图书，图书馆说这项举措已经产生了重大影响。
At the Seattle public-library system, e-book borrowing rose 32% in the month after Kindle books became available, said Seattle's electronic-resources librarian Kirk Blankenship. E-book borrowing had typically been rising 10% or 15% a month, he said.
西雅图电子资源图书管理员布兰肯斯普（Kirk Blankenship）说，在西雅图公共图书系统，提供Kindle电子书后，电子书的借阅增加了32%。他说，电子书借阅以前一般每月增长10%或15%。
Mr. Blankenship said he isn't worried about Amazon starting its own lending service.
布兰肯斯普说，他并不担心亚马逊推出自己的借阅服务。
'There's a lot of people that can't afford Amazon Prime,' he said. 'We also want to be a resource for people looking for other things beyond the best-seller list.'
他说，有很多人订不起Amazon Prime服务；我们也想成为一个资源，供人们在畅销书排行榜之外搜寻其他图书。
Russell Grandinetti, vice president for Kindle content, said 'the vast majority' of participating publishers were receiving a flat fee for their titles, while a more limited group is being paid the wholesale price for each title that is borrowed. 'For those publishers, we're treating each book borrowed as a sale,' he said.
Kindle负责内容的副总裁格朗迪纳提（Russell Grandinetti）说，参与电子图书馆计划的"绝大多数"出版商都拿的是固定的一揽子费用，而少数出版商收取每本借阅图书的批发价。他说，对那些出版商来说，我们将每本借出的图书都看作是出售。
Despite concerns among major publishers about the potentialimpact on sales of the program, some see it as a positive. Arthur Klebanoff, chief executive of RosettaBooks LLC, an e-book publisher that is making Mr. Covey's title available under a flat-fee arrangement, said he did so because he believes it will spur sales of Mr. Covey's other works.
尽管主要出版商担心这项计划可能会冲击图书销售，但部分出版商表示看好。电子书出版商RosettaBooks LLC按照统一佣金提供柯维那本书的借阅，该公司首席执行长克莱巴诺夫（Arthur Klebanoff）说，他这样做是因为，他相信这会推动柯维其他作品的销售。
'I'm attracted to the incremental promotion/visibility for participating titles,' he said. 'All site promotion, especially of backlist titles, drives sales in the Kindle Store.' Mr. Klebanoff said that he's providing about 200 titles in all.
他说，吸引我的是参与计划图书的增量促销/曝光度；全站促销、特别是库存图书的全站促销，会推动Kindle商店里的销售。他说他共提供了约200本书。
JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG / STU WOO
- available [ə´veiləbəl]
a.可用的；有效的 (初中英语单词) - program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- slightly [´slaitli] ad.轻微地；细长的 (初中英语单词)
- effective [i´fektiv] a.有效的；有力的 (初中英语单词)
- device [di´vais] n.装置；器具；策略 (初中英语单词)
- system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
- resource [ri´zɔ:s] n.手段；智谋 (初中英语单词)
- executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
- arrangement [ə´reindʒmənt] n.整理；排列；筹备 (初中英语单词)
- tablet [´tæblit] n.碑；牌；匾额 (高中英语单词)
- kindle [´kindl] v.点燃；(使)激动 (高中英语单词)
- limited [´limitid] a.有限(制)的 (高中英语单词)
- senior [´si:niə] a.年长的 n.前辈 (高中英语单词)
- concerned [kən´sə:nd] a.有关的；担心的 (高中英语单词)
- previously [´pri:viəsli] ad.预先；以前 (高中英语单词)
- restriction [ri´strikʃən] n.限制；限定；约束 (高中英语单词)
- competitor [kəm´petitə] n.竞争者；比赛者 (高中英语单词)
- membership [´membəʃip] n.会员资格；全体会员 (高中英语单词)
- potential [pə´tenʃəl] n.&a.潜在的；可能的 (高中英语单词)
- positive [´pɔzətiv] a.确定的 (高中英语单词)
- publisher [´pʌbliʃə] n.书籍出版者；发表者 (高中英语单词)
- promotion [prə´məuʃən] n.促进；提升；倡仪 (高中英语单词)
- amazon [´æməzən] n.女战士 (英语四级单词)
- restrict [ri´strikt] vt.限制；限定；约束 (英语四级单词)
- automatically [ɔ:tə´mætikli] ad.自动地；无意识地 (英语四级单词)
- subscription [səb´skripʃən] n.预订；预约；捐款 (英语四级单词)
- wholesale [´həulseil] n.&vt.批发 a.批发的 (英语四级单词)
- impact [´impækt] n.影响，作用；冲击 (英语六级单词)
- librarian [lai´breəriən] n.图书馆管理员，馆长 (英语六级单词)
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