In the modern era lending books largely happens by Public Libraries.
Generally worldwide public libraries are non-profit organizations offering book lending services free to their patrons and are generally funded through taxes and donations or by the state.,[2][3] Public libraries are accessible to general public and are run by civil servants, state employees, or volunteers.
In developing and developed nations, for-profit book rental services have started to lend physical books, audiobook CDs, e-books, and audiobook MP3s through stores and online after the popularization of the World Wide Web.
Following the popular Netflix model for video rental, many book companies have applied features such as unlimited rentals, free shipping, and no late fees to their book distribution services.
Since e-book rental distribution rights are totally different from physical books many smaller companies are not able to rent e-books from standard publishers like McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Prentice Hall, Cengage, etc due to the high licensing fees required for rental rights.