Baker & Taylor, the leading distributor of books, AV, and enhanced services, announced they have entered into a partnership with U.K.-based Gardners Books to distribute U.K. books to the U.S. market. Baker & Taylor will distribute over 330,000 U.K. books in the U.S. Gardners Books is Britain's leading book wholesaler with a selection of over 330,000 titles from over 2,500 publishers.The agreement is expected to be finalized in late 2004 at which time orders will begin to be fulfilled.

"There is an incredible demand for U.K. titles from our customers in the U.S. as well as from our international markets such as Australia and New Zealand," said George Coe, President Institutional Markets at Baker & Taylor. "I am excited to enter into a new partnership with a company so internationally respected as Gardners Books. I am even more pleased to offer these difficult-to-obtain books to our customers with all the product enhancements they have come to expect from Baker & Taylor."

"Value added services such as title selection assistance, Collection Development services, our First Look plans for The Title Source II customers, and full cataloging and processing will all be available per usual for these newly available titles," added Coe. "The addition of these overseas titles to our database of 3.8 million titles truly makes Baker & Taylor the global leader in book distribution."

"Baker & Taylor is already recognized in the U.S. as the best place in the wholesale market for finding the esoteric title needed for a special order customer. This new service through Gardners further expands the breadth of our title base and reputation as the 'any book' wholesaler", said Bill Preston, Senior Vice President, Retail.

All available titles from Gardners Books will be loaded into Baker & Taylor's database and will appear on The Title Source II ? and B&T Link Online?. Baker & Taylor will be electronically tied into Gardners Books' inventory and will display real-time updates on an hourly basis. Once a customer orders one of the U.K. titles, there will be an approximate two-week turnaround for the product to reach Baker & Taylor from Gardners Books.