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The library now offers plenty of e-books for those who have an electronic reading device.

"Our patrons are able to use their library cards, that is basically all they need in order to use this digital consortium,” Harker Heights Library Director Lisa Youngblood said. “You can download the books."

A new national survey shows the number of people with e-readers doubled after Christmas, and the Harker Heights library is certainly experiencing the impact.

"We've seen a pretty sharp increase in the popularity of the service," Youngblood said.

It’s a similar story at the Temple Public Library.

"We started last March, we had 85 checkouts that month and we had 380 some in December," Temple Library Director Judy Duer said.

It’s a new convenience for patrons who don't have to step foot in the library to borrow or return books.

"It automatically deletes them once the time is up, so that's one of the ways we advertise, no fines, no overdues," Duer said.

However, the new technology does come at a price for libraries.

"Strangely enough, the e-books are more expensive than the hardbacks,” Duer said. “Not than the retail price of a hardback, but we're able to get a very nice discount as libraries for hardbacks, where they tend to up-charge rather than give you a discount for e-books."

Despite the convenience of electronic reading, there still tends to be a greater quantity and quality of selection on the physical shelves versus the digital ones.

"There are some publishers that find that libraries checking out e-books, it is somehow detrimental to their bottom line,” Duer said. “So they're not interested in playing with libraries. So there are a number of publishers that are not available to us at all."

Even with the advancement in the ways one can read, some still prefer the old-fashioned way.

"Some people enjoy picking up a book and turning the pages, other people enjoy having many, many, many books in one place,” Duer said. “What I see us doing is looking towards the future and provide what all of our patrons will need."

The libraries in Temple and Harker Heights are among a group of 30 libraries in and around Central Texas who have pooled their e-book titles together.

If an e-book is already checked out, patrons can put their name on a waiting list.