Information Today
Volume 17, Issue 11 • December 2000
Wiley Partners with netLibrary, Lightning Source

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has announced that it has signed agreements with netLibrary (http://www.netlibrary.com) and Lightning Source (http://www.lightningsource.com) to provide the online distribution of about 750 new frontlist titles per year. Additionally, netLibrary will provide Wiley with digital conversion services.

“These partnerships represent important steps by Wiley to provide our ‘must-have’ content through a variety of e-book options, including formats that are copyright protected, user-friendly, and commercially viable,” said Stephen Kippur, president of professional/trade publishing and executive vice president at John Wiley & Sons. “Our customers want a wider selection of titles in a broader range of formats through more sales channels. These alliances allow us to serve customers better and drive revenue growth.”

The announcement expands the existing alliance that Wiley and netLibrary began in May. Under the new agreement, net-Library will continue to provide Wiley with digital conversion services and electronic distribution to netLibrary’s customers in the corporate, academic, and public library markets. Most immediately, netLibrary will manage conversion, fulfillment, and hosting for 750 of Wiley’s new frontlist e-book titles. The titles will be drawn from Wiley’s trade and professional business, finance, computer, psychology, technical, and general-interest lists. netLibrary will convert the e-book titles to a variety of file formats, including the netLibrary online and off-line readers, and .oeb, .pdf, and .lit files.

Wiley also forged an alliance with Lightning Source to provide digital fulfillment of Wiley’s e-books through additional channels of distribution, including a number of upcoming major retail initiatives. Lightning Source’s distribution relationships will give Wiley access to a wide range of consumer markets, offering both their trade and more technical titles in multiple formats. Lightning Source also brings to the alliance a growing digital library, content management, and a robust and secure digital fulfillment system, according to the announcement.

Lightning Source, Inc., a subsidiary of Ingram Industries, Inc., provides a comprehensive suite of digital-fulfillment services. Lightning Source stores books and other information electronically and delivers them “on demand” in either traditional printed format or as e-books in response to orders from booksellers, librarians, and publishers. According to the company, Lightning Source has printed more than 1.3 million on-demand books for more than 700 publishers around the world.

Wiley’s wide distribution of e-book files contains those compatible with multiple platforms, including hand-held PDAs, such as Palm devices; hand-held reader devices, such as SoftBook Reader and Rocket eBook; netLibrary’s desktop, online e-book reader; and downloadable desktop platforms, such as Adobe, Glassbook, Microsoft, and netLibrary’s off-line e-book reader. Wiley will offer frontlist titles in all appropriate e-book formats, depending upon the typographical complexity, trim size, and audience for the title. In addition to providing conversion services, netLibrary will enable sell-through of Wiley’s professional and trade e-book titles through its multiple distribution channels.

 “By working together, netLibrary and Wiley are ensuring that libraries, corporate universities, and their patrons and students will have access to an outstanding collection of professional, academic, and trade e-books,” said Rob Kaufman, netLibrary’s president and CEO.

Source: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 212/850-6000; http://www.wiley.com.


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