eBooks Corporation partners with the home of the world wide web to develop eBook Library

eBooks Corporation revealed that it is collaborating with CERN and other international university and research libraries to develop eBook Library, a specialized ebook lending platform.

eBooks Corporation partners with the home of the world wide web to develop eBook Library

eBooks Corporation moves a step closer to achieving its goal of Any book, Anywhere"

Los Angeles, May 29th 2003

At Book Expo America today, eBooks Corporation announced that it is collaborating with leading international university and research libraries to develop an ebook lending platform. Ebook Library or 'EBL is scheduled for release in select university and research libraries in September 2003 and will be officially launched in January 2004.

EBL will feature Non-linear Lending, a multiple-concurrent lending model which allows a single title to be checked out simultaneously by multiple patrons. Other features of EBL include digital interlibrary lending, unique ebook reserve functionality and lending by the chapter. eBook titles can be browsed online and then downloaded to a desktop, laptop, or hand-held device for use offline. The system will allow patrons to perform full text searches across their librarys entire ebook collection.

The impetus to develop EBL was client driven. Unable to find an existing ebook library solution that was suitable for his specialized research environment, Jens Vigen, Scientific Information Officer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva approached eBooks Corporation. CERNs Education and Technology Transfer Division is now working closely with eBooks Corporation to shape an ebook lending product that meets the special needs of research and academic libraries.

Vigen says, CERN gave the world the Word Wide Web in the early 1990s. It is appropriate that we should continue to work on projects that promote innovation in the transfer of information and technology." He explains, CERN Library has been involved in electronic publishing since the Web began. With the development of electronic journals we realized too late that we should have put in a foot earlier, as it has taken great effort to convince publishers to redesign their products after they had been released. With this in mind, we are now actively doing something for the electronic book so that the industry will come up with products that correspond to the needs of scientific libraries."

eBooks Corporation has specialized in the production and distribution of digital books since 1997, and launched one of the worlds first ebook stores (www.ebooks.com) in 2000.

Stephen Cole, Founder and Managing Director of eBooks Corporation says, We have refined the distribution of ebooks in our retail channel and are now expanding our distribution to academic libraries. We come to the library arena with a deep understanding of ebook technology and its uses. Building on our experience were creating a lending platform which will bring tremendous flexibility to library patrons and deliver real efficiencies and cost savings to academic and research libraries.
Were very conscious of the many commercial and ideological sensitivities surrounding digital libraries, and are determined that EBL will live up to the expectations of patrons, libraries, publishers and authors. EBL will do what everyone thought digital libraries were supposed to do.

EBL will offer an extensive academic catalogue with a particular focus on scientific, technical and medical titles.

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About eBooks Corporation

eBooks Corporation is a global provider of digital books. It has distribution agreements with publishers in the US, UK and Australia. The company has long-standing, close working relationships with Adobe, Microsoft, Palm and other stakeholders in the ebook industry. Ebooks Corporation develops, hosts, and securely distributes eBooks through its retail site (www.ebooks.com). eBooks Corporation will soon be expanding distribution to wholesale (www.ebookengine.com) and library (www.ebl.ebooks.com) channels.

About CERN
CERN (www.cern.ch) is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics center. Founded in 1954, the laboratory was one of Europe's first joint ventures and includes now 20 Member States. Physicists come to CERN to explore what matter is made of and the forces that hold it together. Founded in 1954, the laboratory was one of Europe's first joint ventures and includes now 20 Member States.
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