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Baker & Taylor Unveils First Phase of Integrated Digital Media Distribution Platform

Posted on: Monday, 9 March 2009, 08:40 CDT

- Worldwide Licensing Partnership with ebrary Enables econtent Hosting and Best-of-Breed Digital Media Platform -

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker & Taylor, Inc., the world's largest distributor of books and entertainment products, today launched the first phase of its integrated digital media distribution platform through a strategic worldwide licensing partnership with ebrary, a leading provider of e-content services and technologies.

The partnership enables Baker & Taylor to develop its own digital content products and services, as well as to integrate tens of thousands of e-books and other titles that ebrary has aggregated from more than 350 leading publishers. The new Baker & Taylor digital media distribution platform will be seamlessly integrated to efficiently deliver physical and digital content across its broad customer markets.

"We're taking Baker & Taylor to the next level - as the premier provider of digital and physical content," said Tom Morgan, CEO of Baker & Taylor. "This is the first piece of a comprehensive digital supply chain we will be rolling out in the coming weeks. We took great care to choose the best technology available, so that we can offer our customers the broadest flexibility, the best tools, and continual innovation. It's perfect market timing for us - our customers are ready and eager for bundled physical and digital products and services."

"ebrary is extremely proud to extend the value of our technology, which has been trusted by thousands of libraries and publishers for more than a decade, to Baker & Taylor's global customer base," said Kevin Sayar, President of ebrary. "By integrating our technology and products within Baker & Taylor's infrastructure and workflow, librarians now have greater access to both print and digital content, publishers see new revenue streams, and end-users have the tools they need to discover, use,

and manage digital information. Our partnership with Baker & Taylor will fundamentally change the dynamics of the print and digital content industry."

"This gives publishers a premium avenue to distribute their content in both print and electronic formats," said George Coe, President of Library & Education for Baker & Taylor. "There is already great demand in the academic library market, but this digital infrastructure will also serve the growing needs of our government, corporate and international customers as we integrate collection development, cataloging and workflow services with the advanced technology and usage statistics in the ebrary platform."

About Baker & Taylor

Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.btol.com) is a global information and entertainment services company that offers books, videos, music, games and services to libraries, educational institutions, and retailers. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company has been in existence for over 180 years, developing long-term relationships with major suppliers, including book publishers, movie studios, and music labels. Baker & Taylor maintains one of the largest combined in-stock book, video and music inventories in the United States, and services the broadest customer base in the industry. Baker & Taylor is majority owned by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., a leading private equity investment firm.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)

ebrary(R) is a leading provider of e-content services and technology. The company helps libraries, publishers, and other organizations worldwide disseminate valuable information to end-users, while improving their research and document interaction.

The company has developed a flexible e-content platform, which customers may use in a number of different, integrated capacities: ebrary customers may purchase or subscribe to e-books and other content under a variety of pricing and access models, and they may license the ebrary platform to distribute, sell, and market their own content online. All options are delivered using a customizable interface and include a choice of ebrary Readers with QuickView(TM) for instant viewing in a browser and InfoTools(TM) software which provide contextual searching and integration with multiple online resources.

ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 e-books and other titles from more than 350 leading publishers and aggregators. Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

SOURCE Baker & Taylor, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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