Ran across this picture on Flickr that shows a new type of nook packaging. The hard plastic container was interesting, but a bit dangerous to your nook when you tried to open it. Some people just couldn't believe that had to read instructions to play with their new toy.

While the package is probably cheaper and maybe less impressive this is likely an improvement because the old packaging style was frustrating to many users - especially those with arthritis like me :)

I wager this is all part of a "redesign" coming to handle the new nook "lite" model.  I suspect the $50 gift card deal is part of that strategy as well.

This goes in the category of "YES-WE-CAN".

Do you own an eBook reader like the B&N nook? Are you a library enthusiast, or would like to share books more widely than you can with "Lend-Me"? If your local library makes use of OverDrive for eBooks you are in luck!

A nookTalk user alerted me to a thread on Mobile Read that has a personal story about how to do this. I've summarized the steps to take to purchase a book for your library (and borrow it yourself of course).

1) Locate a book your are interested in at Overdrive (http://search.overdrive.com). The search results will show you what is available, and what may be in your local library.

2) Find the "Contact us" link and email Overdrive about purchasing the book for your library. They will forward the request to your librarian. Some librarians may not be familiar with this process or have someone to handle your request. It's possible your library has no easy way to handle this. It may be useful to contact your library the first time.

3) You will be contacted on how to pay the invoice for the eBook. Most libraries will have a discounted rate, but click here to find out the retail cost of the book you are considering (most likely more than B&N purchase)

4) Be the first to check it out from your local library! It's likely to appear immediately after payment.

5) Send Overdrive an email telling them that you think this is great and ask them to implement accepting payments directly for ebook donations to the selected library. This one change would be a huge help to get patrons purchase ebooks to donate.

One of the things I really don't like about the nook is the reading the controls, they just aren't very compelling.  For example, I would like to see what chapter I'm in or have the ability to pick a page number. These are simple things B&N could have added in by now (maybe in between sudoko and chess?)

Looks like someone from the nookdevs community is whipping up just what the doctor ordered.  Check out this video.  Hopefully it appears on the nookdevs application list soon; I checked their source repository and didn't find anything :(