ebrary, an online content-distribution and research service, has reached an agreement with U.K. academic distributor Blackwell's to provide Blackwell's library clients with ebrary's suite of secure, full-text PDF search tools.
The agreement integrates ebrary's full-text preview and searching functions into the Blackwell's Collection Manager, an online database of academic research titles, used by thousands of research librarians to buy or borrow print and e-books. The agreement also makes titles from the more than 130 publishers affiliated with ebrary available to librarians who use Collection Manager. The ebrary preview uses PDF technology so the online previews look exactly like the print books.
Chris Warnock, CEO of ebrary, said the agreement widens the distribution of ebrary's research technology while allowing "publishers to promote and sell their titles via the Internet." He pointed to the success of National Academy Press—which posts the full text of all of its titles online for free—as an example of how full-text preview can boost books sales. "There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that previewing and browsing titles can drive sales of print titles and e-books," Warnock told PW. "We think it can help reduce returns as well."
Tom Turvey, v-p of content and business development at ebrary, said the service is free to ebrary publishers. Turvey noted that there was no money involved in the agreement and that the two companies are swapping services—Blackwell gets a full-text searching and ordering tool, and ebrary publishers are offered through Blackwell's huge title database. "Books available through Blackwell's have a big advantage," said Turvey.
