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NetLibrary to Supply Over One-Half Million Dollars of eBooks to PALINET,
Colorado Alliance
Over one million library patrons
will have anytime, anywhere access via the
Internet to the world's first comprehensive digital library
DETROIT, MI, ACRL Conference – April 9, 1999 – NetLibrary
(www.NetLibrary.com), the world's premier provider of electronic books and
information, announced two agreements today that will bring more than half a
million dollars of electronic books (eBooks) to library patrons. PALINET, a
cooperative nonprofit organization of libraries and information centers, and the
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, a partnership of research, public, and
educational institutions, will secure eBooks from NetLibrary.
By partnering with NetLibrary, library members will be able to offer anytime,
anywhere access to a comprehensive collection of reference, scholarly, and
professional electronic books. Electronic content may be viewed, searched, and
checked out via the Internet by patrons with a personal computer and an Internet
browser (version 3.x).
"NetLibrary provides traditional libraries with the key technology to make the
jump into the age of digital information," said Tim Schiewe, CEO of NetLibrary.
"This is an exciting opportunity for us to work with these two progressive library
consortia to demonstrate the benefits of digital books to their one million
patrons."
NetLibrary's mission is to integrate the convenience, access, and capabilities of
the Web with the familiarity and depth of content patrons experience today at
their local or university library. In the first week of NetLibrary's launch the
NetLibrary site (www.NetLibrary.com) had over one million hits, with visitors
spending an average of more than thirteen minutes on the site.
"This is the most significant effort we have made on behalf of our members to
extend the 'bricks-and-mortar' library institution to the online community," said
James Rush, executive director, PALINET. "NetLibrary's extensive relationships
with publishers, combined with its unique distribution and copyright-protection
technology, gives our members a tremendous head start toward integrating
eBooks into their institutions."
NetLibrary worked with PALINET and Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries,
as well as other major library consortia including OhioLINK and The University of
Texas System, to trial the NetLibrary system prior to its launch in March 1999.
"NetLibrary's search and highlight features will certainly add value for library
patrons who are often synthesizing volumes of information," said George
Machovic, Associate Director of the Colorado Alliance. "Our early trial of
NetLibrary has proven that our library members derive real benefit from the
service, enabling access to a far broader array of content than would otherwise
be available."
NetLibrary has signed agreements with over fifty leading publishers, including
ABC-CLIO, Grove's Dictionaries Inc., Macmillan Publishers Ltd. UK, Harvard
Business School Press, The McGraw-Hill Companies, The MIT Press, and
Purdue University Press, to provide its customers with an extensive selection of
scholarly, reference, and professional books in electronic format.
NetLibrary converts hard-copy books to a proprietary electronic format, storing
them on NetLibrary servers and then converting them to HTML as library patrons
request them from a personal computer. NetLibrary gives libraries the ability to
better serve their patrons by reducing or eliminating overhead and infrastructure
costs associated with book storage, replacement, and maintenance. Interlibrary
loans can be handled via the Internet, eliminating the need for shipping
expenses and ending the delay associated with traditional loans.
For users, NetLibrary offers services beyond what is possible with hard-copy
books. Besides twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week access, users can
search volumes of material by author, subject, title, keyword, phrase, or idea. A
search for a phrase or keyword will not only pull up eBooks with the requested
information, but will take you directly to the page where it appears. Once there,
NetLibrary allows users to highlight, bookmark, and annotate text, all of which
can be saved and used if the eBook is viewed again.
NetLibrary is the world's leading provider of reference, scholarly, and
professional electronic books and information on the Internet. Based in Boulder,
Colorado, the company provides traditional libraries with new information and
enhanced services and provides publishers with new distribution and revenue
channels. Libraries currently using NetLibrary's services include Colorado
Alliance of Research Libraries, OhioLINK, PALINET, and The University of
Texas System. NetLibrary is also working with the world's leading publishers
and university presses. NetLibrary can be found at www.NetLibrary.com.
Founded in 1936, PALINET is a diversified nonprofit membership organization
serving over 600 member libraries in Delaware, the District of Columbia,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Its mission
is to assist staff of libraries and information centers to deliver high-quality, cost-effective
services to their users through the application of technologies that
foster information access and management, resource sharing, and interlibrary
cooperation.
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries is a partnership of research, public
and educational institutions working in concert to serve the information needs of
the constituencies of member institutions and the general public. Founded in
1974, there are eleven member libraries: Auraria Library, Colorado School of
Mines, Colorado State University, Denver Public Library, Regis University,
University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center, University of Denver, University of Denver Law Library, University of
Northern Colorado, and University of Wyoming.
Contact:
NetLibrary
Sandy Mickelson
(303) 415-2548
PALINET
James E. Rush
(215) 382-7031
Colorado Alliance
Alan Charnes
George Machovec
(303) 759-3339
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