An item from New Jersey's Courier Post highlights local libraries making quicker inroads with eBooks purchases. Several library systems in south Jersey are implementing eBook systems, including the Burlington County Library System, which the article said had spent about $1,000 for loaner PDAs to be used for eBooks reading and about $15,000 for "600 eBooks and the Web site to access them." Seemed somewhat high, so I contacted Molly Connor at BCLS, who confirmed that most of this expenditure was for their OverDrive-powered eBook portal, with probably about $10,000 spent for the eBooks titles. That's about $16 a title, not bad when one considers that it's a mix of classics and best sellers, but still not a great bargain, considering the long-term cost effectiveness of eBooks titles. Publishers will be better off lowering the base price of eBooks to libraries and offering borrowers lending upgrades (borrow when "copies" are on waiting list for a premium, etc.), so as to encourage a wide enough catalog to stimulate more interest in their titles. The DRM-protected library lending model is potentially one of the most powerful engines for stimulating premium content sales, one which all kinds of content publishers would be wise to visit with more interest and vigor.