OverDrive has launched a pilot program that will allow millions of library patrons to check out the same eBook all at once during a two-week period. The Big Library Read project will let members of more than 7,500 libraries globally simultaneously accessThe Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone.

OverDrive is working the book’s publisher Sourcebooks on the initiative. Library patrons at participating libraries will need to have a library card to check out the book.

Sari Feldman, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio expressed her enthusiasm in a statement: “It is an exciting opportunity to engage readers all over the world in a global book discussion and highlight the critical role libraries play in the discovery process. It has long been accepted as conventional wisdom that libraries help drive the success of authors. Through projects like this, we can affirm that wisdom with hard data and reinforce what we already know – that libraries play a key role in marketing books and authors.”