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Baker & Taylor Partners with Gale to Distribute Elite e-Books Baker & Taylor, Inc.( 10/29/2009 ) - Pair Brings Gale Virtual Reference Library to Academic and Public Libraries - CHARLOTTE, N.C. - October 29, 2009 - Baker & Taylor, Inc., the world's largest distributor of physical and digital books and entertainment products, and Gale, part of Cengage Learning, are proud to announce their partnership to distribute the highly regarded Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) e-book collection. Baker & Taylor, the first wholesaler to sell the GVRL platform, will distribute GVRL - including Literature Criticism Online and Gale Directory Library - in the academic and public library markets. "This partnership continues our long-term strategic initiative to provide our customers with the content they need in the format of their choice," said George Coe, President of Library & Education at Baker & Taylor. "Our collaboration with Gale offers our academic and public library customers the perfect combination of the most respected and highest-quality content available and the best value-added services in the marketplace." Patrick C. Sommers, President, Gale, said: "The demand for books and resources in an electronic format continues to grow, and we are pleased to be in a position to meet that demand. This partnership means we can expand distribution, while allowing academic and public libraries to order, revise and renew their subscriptions, using Baker & Taylor's leading library collection management services." GVRL offers nearly 3,000 reference sources from some 50 authoritative publishers on a stable, easy-to-use platform. Libraries have the flexibility to buy one e-book or multiple e-books and to search across a single e-book or an entire e-book collection. The collection grows weekly and covers a wide variety of topics and subjects ? ranging from current events to classics and from arts and humanities to small business management. Literature Criticism Online brings together 10 of the most acclaimed literary series representing a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. Gale Directory Library is an online collection of cross-searchable, authoritative directories of companies, publishers, associations and more. Public and academic libraries can purchase GVRL products from Baker & Taylor's unique and comprehensive Title Source TM 3 ordering system. Academic and public library customers may also continue to purchase GVRL products from their Gale representative. The new partnership simply expands customers' options for ordering and allows customers to take advantage of the numerous services Baker & Taylor provides. Attention customers: Please note that in conjunction with this launch Title Source TM 3 will be down for maintenance this morning from 6:15 a.m. (EDT) to 8:30 a.m. (EDT). About Baker & Taylor About Cengage Learning and Gale Media Contacts: Baker & Taylor Gale, part of Cengage Learning Corporate Offices: Baker & Taylor Gale, part of Cengage Learning Baker & Taylor and Gale's e-Book Partnership 1. What is this partnership? 7. How do Literature Criticism Online (LCO), Something About the Author Online (SATAO), Dictionary of Literary Biography Online (DLBO) and the Gale Directory Library (GDL) relate to the Gale Virtual Reference Libary? All of these products are contained under the umbrella of the Gale e-book platform. However, there are functional differences between them. GVRL titles are e-versions of specific monograph titles that are fully searchable exact versions of print titles. More specifically, the print titles are exact copies of the e-book as the e-book is usually created first. These e-books can be viewed in HTML or PDF format. LCO/SATAO/DLBO are fully searchable archives of original Gale literature series that contain hundreds of volumes of content in one interface. These are searchable graphic files and are not available in HTML format. GDL is in many ways identical to the Gale Virtual Reference Library interface, except it contains only directory content. Think of GDL as containing titles with fielded data while GVRL contains titles that are essay based. 8. When does this partnership between B&T and Gale go into effect? We expect orders to start flowing across B&T and Gale systems soon after the announcement of the partnership. YBP has sold multiple orders for Gale e-books since the partnership was announced in March. 9. GVRL products have never been sold through wholesale channels. Why now? Gale customers have requested the ability to buy e-books through B&T and YBP, because our collection development tools and acquisition tools are imbedded into the natural workflow of the library, offering a "value-add" that Gale is not able to offer. Gale believes these tools, combined with its superior e-book content, represent a compelling solution for customers. Gale also believes this partnership will help it to penetrate even more deeply into each market. The spirit of this agreement is one of collaboration and partnership. 10. Who will handle the e-book hosting fee? This partnership is about doing what is right and convenient for customers. Each customer will choose which organization it would prefer to have bill its hosting fees. Some customers like to align their e-book hosting fees with their database subscriptions and would prefer their billing through Gale. Others prefer the ordering and payment convenience of Baker & Taylor. If an existing Gale customer opts to switch their hosting fee to go through B&T, Gale will calculate the price to be charged based on the number of e-books owned as of that customer's anniversary date - just as Gales does today. B&T has all of the appropriate information to educate new library customers on the e-book hosting fee concept and will bill the library according to Gale's price schedule. 11. Does Gale have a preference as to where - from us or them -- a customer buys e-book products? We want to make the selection and purchase of Gale e-books as simple as possible for our customers. Gale does not have a preference as to where the customer actually purchases product. Some customers will choose to purchase direct from the Gale, others will choose to place the order through Baker & Taylor. Customers' ordering options have simply expanded, and they now have the choice of ordering through B&T/YBP or Gale. 12. How will customers buying GVRL through B&T and B&T's YBP be supported? Gale will provide all fulfillment and technical support while B&T/YBP will provide customer invoicing and billing. Gale has modified the customer facing access letters that are sent to each customer to reflect co-branding with B&T/YBP. A customer buying GVRL through YBP will receive an access letter referencing both Gale and YBP. A customer buying GVRL through B&T will receive an access letter referencing both Gale and B&T. Customers will be directed to contact B&T/YBP for all questions regarding invoices and to contact Gale for all access and technical issues. Additionally, our respective support departments have contacts at each organization to jointly work through any customer issues that might surface with the goal of maximizing the customer experience. For B&T customer service and support, contact btgale@baker-taylor.com. For YBP customer service and support, contact Hester Campbell at 603-746-3102, ext. 3717; or hcampbell@ybp.com. For Gale customer service and support, contact Karen Radulovich at 800-877-4253, ext. 2155; or karen.radulovich@cengage.com. 13. What are the sales contacts for GVRL? For B&T: btgale@baker-taylor.com. For YBP: sales@ybp.com. For Gale: Locate the representative for your area at www.gale.cengage.com/rep. |
