Blackwell's teams with NetLibrary to
offer eBooks to academic libraries
Partnership joins academic distribution powerhouse with
fast-growing Internet start-up
NEW ORLEANS – June 27, 1999 – NetLibrary(www.NetLibrary.com), the
world's premier provider of electronic books and information, announced a
groundbreaking partnership today with Blackwell Ltd, the market leader in library
book supply and information provision. The announcement was made during the
annual American Library Association conference here.
"This partnership extends both NetLibrary and Blackwell's in ways that make
sense in this rapidly changing marketplace," said Daniel P. Halloran, president
and CEO of Blackwell's Book Services. "The advent of new media and the
Internet have opened new possibilities and posed new challenges for libraries –
by working together we're forging new solutions to meet these needs."
The partnership will allow Blackwell's Book Services to offer eBooks to their
library customers as an additional option to the physical book services they
currently offer. Librarians and library administrators will be able to plan and
manage their entire collection – both eBooks and physical books – using the
same process.
"It's no secret that librarians are the leading edge of information management,"
said Tim Schiewe, NetLibrary's chief executive officer. "This partnership brings
together tools that will enable librarians and publishers to more rapidly scale in
the Internet age with the sort of historical leadership and credibility they expect
from book providers.
In addition to distribution, the Blackwell's partnership with NetLibrary will allow
both to extend their current publishing relationships, as well as leveraging joint
marketing efforts.
In leasing the campus – one of the largest in the city of Boulder – NetLibrary was represented
by Lynda Gibbons of Gibbons-White, Inc. Trammell Crow was represented by D. James Sandoz and
Dan Burke.
Libraries using NetLibrary services 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'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 visits, with visitors
spending an average of more than sixteen minutes on the site.
NetLibrary has signed agreements with over fifty leading publishers, including
ABC-CLIO, Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, Grove's
Dictionaries Inc., Houghton-Mifflin, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. UK, The McGraw-Hill
Companies, The MIT Press, and O'Reilly, 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.
Blackwell Ltd., based in Oxford, England, has been in the book business since
1879, when Blackwell's Bookshop was first established to serve the academic
community of Oxford University. Today, as a part of the library services division,
Blackwell's Book Services (BBS) provides a full range of traditional library
bookselling services integrated with the latest in library technology and technical
services. The company specializes in the supply of books and value-added
bibliographic products and services to over 15,000 academic, research and
special libraries in over 120 countries around the world. Blackwell's Book
Services firm order service covers virtually the entire publication output of close
to 50,000 scholarly, professional, and trade presses.
In addition to firm orders, standing orders and approval plans, BBS offers
libraries sophisticated electronic services such as Collection ManagerTM, a web-based
New Titles management and acquisitions system, and online table of
contents enrichment for library bibliographic catalogs.
Blackwell's Book Services headquarters are located in Lake Oswego, Oregon,
with offices in Oxford, England, Sydney, Australia and Blackwood, New Jersey.
Other Blackwell, Ltd. divisions include publishing and retail bookstores.
Contact:
NetLibrary
David Melançon
303/415-2548
david@netlibrary.com
Blackwell's
Martha Whittaker
888/236-5168
Martha.Whittaker@blackwell.com
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