title_body: Can I get an ebook from the library in the United States? I know Amazon has a program where, if you pay extra, you can borrow ebooks.  Just about everyone in the USA pays taxes to support their local Library.  Are there any programs that allow library books to be checked out, as ebooks?
upvoted_answer: I can answer in regards to the Los Angeles City public libraries, and I suspect that many libraries in the United States use the same system. They have a dedicated page explaining the e-media options available to their members.
  
  From this page it seems that there are quite a few companies/subcontracters that they use to handle the transfer of ebooks from the library to a subscriber's account/ereader  - Axis360, Overdrive and Hoopla, for example.
  
  There are more options listed on their e-media page, as well as links to other free, public resources like Project Gutenberg, Bartleby, and the Alex catalog of public texts that don't require LAPL membership.