Duke University Press launches new electronic book collection

[Kim Steinle <ksteinle@dukeupress.edu>]

For immediate release,
September 9, 2008

For more information, contact
Kimberly Steinle, Library Relations Manager
libraryrelations@dukeupress.edu
dukeupress.edu/library.edukebooks/index.html

Michael McCullough, Sales Manager
mmccullough@dukeupress.edu

Duke University Press announces the official launch of a new 
electronic book product, the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection

Duke University Press is pleased to announce the launch of the 
new e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. This collection provides 
online access to at least 100 new scholarly books published by 
Duke University Press in the humanities and social sciences in a 
calendar year. By purchasing the current year's titles in the 
collection, libraries also receive access to over 900 Duke 
University Press backlist books now available in electronic form.

The e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection is hosted on the ebrary 
platform, which allows an unlimited number of simultaneous users 
at a subscribing institution to access content and use ebrary's 
searching, navigating, archiving, and other research tools. The 
content of the collection is full-text searchable, like that of 
other titles to which the institution has access via ebrary. 
Additionally, Duke University Press has partnered with Duke 
University's Perkins/Bostock Library to provide enhanced MARC 
records, including chapter-level metadata.

With the guidance of project consultant and library market 
specialist October Ivins, a pilot project was launched in January 
2008, allowing a select group of nineteen partner libraries to 
provide feedback concerning such matters as access, pricing, the 
site license, and vendor preferences. Ivins comments, 
"Collaborating with staff at Duke University Press and Libraries, 
ebrary, and BiblioVault, as well as with our pilot partner 
libraries and book vendors, has been a process filled with new 
insights that have improved our product and business model. 
Collectively, I feel that we have fulfilled Duke University Press 
director Steve Cohn's vision of creating a library-friendly 
e-book collection that other university presses and small 
publishers may use as a model."

Norm Medeiros, associate librarian of Haverford College, states, 
"Haverford, with its partners Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, 
entered into the pilot through the PALINET consortium in order to 
provide faculty and students with a collection of high-quality 
electronic books. The integration of the e-Duke books into our 
ebrary channel affords easy access to the collection. Usage has 
been strong, indicating that the titles with their digital 
advantages are serving our users well."

The business model of the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection 
builds on that of the e-Duke Journals Scholarly Collection, which 
also evolved with much collaboration and feedback from the 
library community. The e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection features 
a similar library-friendly tiered pricing structure based on 
Carnegie classifications and an inexpensive print add-on option.

For more information about the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection 
pilot project, please visit 
<www.dukeupress.edu/library/edukebooks/index.html> or contact 
either Library Relations Manager Kimberly Steinle at 
libraryrelations@dukeupress.edu or Sales Manager Michael 
McCullough at mmccullough@dukeupress.edu.

About Duke University Press

Duke University Press publishes approximately 115 books annually 
and more than 30 periodicals in a wide range of disciplines 
within the humanities and sciences. In addition to the e-Duke 
Books Scholarly Collection, the Press offers several other 
electronic resources 
<www.dukeupress.edu/library/ecollections.html>.

About ebrary <www.ebrary.com>

ebrary is a leading provider of e-content services and 
technology. The company helps libraries, publishers, and other 
organizations worldwide disseminate valuable information to end 
users while improving their research and document interaction.

The company has developed a flexible e-content platform, which 
customers may use in a number of integrated capacities: ebrary 
customers may purchase or subscribe to e-books and other content 
under a variety of pricing and access models, and they may 
license the ebrary platform to distribute, sell, and market their 
own content online. All options are delivered using a 
customizable interface and include the ebrary Reader(tm) with 
InfoTools(tm) software, which enable integration with other 
resources to provide an economical and efficient way to utilize 
information.

ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 
e-books and other titles from more than 300 leading publishers 
and aggregators.

ebrary is the registered trademark and/or service mark of ebrary.