Ambassador Partners With ebrary for New E-book Offering

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ebrary®, a leading provider of e-content services and technology, today announced that it has been selected by Ambassador Books and Media, a premier provider of print and non-print materials to libraries of all types, to provide Ambassador’s new e-book offering. Under the terms of the agreement, Ambassador will resell ebrary’s e-books from leading publishers under a perpetual access model to its vast customer base in more than 30 countries.

“Additionally, ebrary’s unique technology, which makes doing research quick and easy, is an enormous value add to our customers and their end-users. We are very excited to expand our business by partnering with ebrary.”

“ebrary’s growing selection of tens of thousands of authoritative e-books will greatly enhance our print product line and provide us with competitive advantage,” said Steven Blicht, Ambassador’s Executive Vice President/COO. “Additionally, ebrary’s unique technology, which makes doing research quick and easy, is an enormous value add to our customers and their end-users. We are very excited to expand our business by partnering with ebrary.”

“With 35 years in the industry, Ambassador is a long-established leader serving libraries and other educational institutions throughout the world,” said Kevin Sayar, President of ebrary. “We are thrilled to partner with Ambassador to distribute our e-books to new global markets and look forward to providing our publishing partners with additional revenue opportunities.”

A growing selection of more than 67,300 e-books and other authoritative titles in a variety of academic and professional subject areas will be available through Ambassador. Titles will be available for purchase under a single or multi-user access model, and Ambassador will fulfill e-book orders using the ebrary Ordering Platform (eBOP).

Key Features and Benefits of ebrary’s Technology:

-- The ebrary Reader(TM) provides the ebrary system with all of its rich functionality and streams documents, eliminating cumbersome document downloads. The ebrary Reader is available as either an Active X or Java-based program.

-- ebrary InfoTools(TM) -- This customizable set of utilities integrates ebrary's content with the online resources of libraries' choice. Many InfoTools features can be activated simply by selecting words or phrases of interest in a document.

-- Multiple search options - ebrary offers advanced and simple, by full-text, keyword, subject or author. It also supports Boolean, proximity, and federated search, and integrates with libraries' existing search engine technology.

-- Personal bookshelves automatically store links to bookmarks, highlights, and notes, providing an archive of research.

-- Automatic citations when text is printed, or copied and pasted into Word or any text application. Citations include an automatic URL hyperlink back to the source.

-- Highlighting and annotating with any of the following combinations:

-- Multiple highlights and notes per page

-- Resizable and movable notes

-- Highlights with or without notes attached

-- Color coding of notes and highlights

-- Table of contents rank the occurrence of search terms, enabling end-users to find the information they need. The table of contents can be accessed before a document is opened.

-- Ability to transform text into a hyperlink to a URL of the end-user's choice.

-- Multiple ways to navigate throughout a document or the entire selection.

-- Reporting tools and usage statistics.

About Ambassador Books and Media (www.absbook.com)

Ambassador Books and Media is now celebrating its 35th anniversary as a premier provider of print and non-print materials to college, university, school, corporate, public, government and medical libraries throughout the world. Ambassador supplies the complete book and publication requirements of schools, libraries and other educational institutions in over thirty countries.

Through continuous and significant investment in personnel and technology, Ambassador is able to offer a comprehensive range of book and media services to libraries, with a recognized reputation for high order fulfillment, accuracy, reliability, experienced and professional customer service support, and state of the art automation capabilities and interfaces.

OneSource is Ambassador's proprietary, password protected software that offers our clients access to: our database of over 3 million book titles and over 1.5 million media titles; the capability to order, claim, cancel and verify shipping status online; receive MARC formatted order confirmations, generate order reports sorted by PO, Title, Author or ISBN; and view invoices and statements online to confirm account balances.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)

ebrary® 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 the ebrary Reader™ with InfoTools™ software, which enable integration with other resources to provide an economical and efficient way to utilize information.

ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 e-books and other titles from more than 300 leading publishers and aggregators.

Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.