Good point on the Kindle announcement. I think people are excited because previously it sounded like Amazon was *not* going to work with Overdrive, ever. That they're working on making that happen says to folks that Amazon's willing to work with the external group to make library lending possible -- where before it had seemed like they disdained the library lending format. So you're right, it's just talk, but at least it's talk in the right direction (as far as libraries are concerned!).

And the format issues you're talking about make sense with the text book issue. I think the iPad and other tablets are going to make digital textbooks friendlier, especially if you can, say, make hand-drawn digital notes alongside your chemistry textbook, for example. It'll happen eventually!