Baker & Taylor, the leading distributor of books, AV, and library services, and OCLC NetLibrary, the leading provider of eContent services to the institutional library market, today announced an agreement to combine their strengths to facilitate delivery of a broader range of eContent to the library market.

eBooks are full-text electronic versions of published books that library patrons can search, borrow, read, and return via the Internet. With NetLibrary eBooks, patrons can access library resources anywhere, while performing full-text searches across thousands of titles, and viewing books from their Internet browser.

With the increasing demand from libraries for electronic content and the clear need to deliver that digital content within today’s library acquisitions programs, Baker & Taylor and NetLibrary recognized the benefits their working partnership would provide to library customers. This agreement will result in a significant increase in the scope of eContent delivered to our customers within already established programs and workflows.

“This partnership is the perfect union of each company’s strengths to best deliver eBooks to our customers,” said George Coe, President Institutional Markets at Baker & Taylor. “To our customers, this collaboration will be virtually seamless. In the next few weeks, over 80,000 NetLibrary eBook titles will be available through Baker & Taylor, and B&T will incorporate these electronic materials into current collection development programs and approval plans.”

“This is an exciting opportunity for Baker & Taylor, NetLibrary, and the libraries we serve,” said Rich Rosy, Vice President of eContent for NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. “It reinforces NetLibrary’s commitment to support libraries with both quality content and effective and efficient means for integrating digital content into standard library plans and programs.”

Baker & Taylor and NetLibrary will expand on the electronic distribution relationship established in 2001. The processes already in place from that earlier working partnership will enable the two companies to launch this new alliance with minimal transitional requirements.

About Baker & Taylor, Inc.
Baker & Taylor, Inc. 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 176 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 Willis Stein & Partners, a leading private equity investment firm.

About NetLibrary
Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, NetLibrary is a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., a nonprofit organization and a leader in computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, digitalization, and preservation service to libraries worldwide. NetLibrary provides content and technical delivery solutions to institutional libraries, corporations and government agencies that facilitate the purchase, management and distribution of research, reference, digital learning, and general interest content via Web-based technologies. NetLibrary’s eContent solution is the most broadly adopted in the market, making the content of more than 400 publishers and eContent providers available through more than 12,000 libraries worldwide.