Shelf Control: Borrow E-Books From Your Local Library With Baker & Taylor's axisReader

Apple has iBooks. Amazon has Kindle. Barnes & Noble has Nook. Google has Google Play Books. Kobo has Kobo Books. And now, Baker & Taylor has axisReader, which is the focus of this week's Shelf Control. North Carolina-based Baker & Taylor, which is touted as "the world's largest distributor of digital and physical books and entertainment products," launched axisReader just a few weeks ago. The app is made available primarily for downloading and reading e-books from libraries that support Baker & Taylor's Axis 360 platform, which provides libraries across the U.S. with access to a myriad of fiction and nonfiction titles. Provided that your local library is into Axis 360, you can use the app's Find a Library section to search for your library and bookmark it for quick access. You can then borrow and read e-books from your library, that is, as long as you've authorized the app with your Adobe ID. (Most library e-books are protected with Adobe DRM.) Other than its integration with libraries, axisReader looks and works similar to your usual iOS e-reading apps. The app's integrated e-reader supports text searching, dictionary lookup, bookmarking, highlighting, and note-taking. As for its formatting options, it offers adjustments for text size, typeface, text color, background color, justification, and color themes. And for its reading options, it provides settings for margin width, page turn animation, orientation lock, night mode, and brightness. But what if your local library doesn't participate in the Axis 360 program? Can axisReader still be of use to you? The answer is yes, for the reason that the app can also import and read DRM-free ePub and PDF books from your personal collection. If you ask me, though, I'd rather use the more user-friendly iBooks, Nook, Kobo, and Readmill (my e-reading app of choice) for that particular purpose. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 5.0 or later, axisReader is available now in the App Store for free. As always, if you have suggestions for Shelf Control, please feel free to email me at aldrin@appadvice.com or simply leave a comment below. [gallery link="file" order="DESC"]