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LexisNexis announced an agreement with OverDrive to create the LexisNexis Digital Library on April 23. Available now on a limited basis for “select pilot customers,” LexisNexis spokesperson Marc Osborn told LJ, it will be available broadly early in the third quarter of 2012.

OverDrive will create and customize a website for each law firm or organization, and a librarian or designated administrator will manage it and acquire titles for the collection. Among the decisions the librarian can make, Osborn told LJ, are the length of the checkout period (from 7-180 days), whether books can be renewed, and whether there is a maximum checkout quantity at one time. Academic and government law libraries are expected to take advantage of the service as well as law firms and corporations.

In addition to LexisNexis’ more than 1,100 electronic legal titles, users will have access to OverDrive’s 700,000-title Content Reserve collection development portal. Many titles offer simultaneous access. “Individual LexisNexis eBooks range in price from $14 to $1,000+ and select titles are available by subscription,” Osborn told LJ. “LexisNexis Digital Library pricing varies and ranges from a single user, single copy approach to an unlimited use pricing model.”

Legal professionals can check out and return titles via the website, a mobile version of the site or a downloadable app. Books may be checked back into the digital library early if the user is finished with the title, according to Osborn. Otherwise, when the checkout period expires, the book is automatically returned.

LexisNexis eBooks are compatible with Windows and Mac computers, iOS, Android, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and BlackBerry.