In February, ebrary celebrated a special milestone: a decade of industry innovation. Company CEO/CTO Christopher Warnock and president Kevin Sayar report that despite the ups and downs of a restless economy this year, ebrary is still thriving. “We’re growing consistently,” says Sayar. “Our growth this year has exceeded last year’s.” For Warnock, “We’ve experienced a continued momentum. The past 10 years have been amazing. ”
ebrary has long been ahead of the innovation curve in the marketplace, serving as pioneers of the subscription ebook market and adding value with
ebrary's first 10 years have been amazing, say Kevin Sayar, president, and Christopher Warnock, CEO/CTO.
rich, detailed usage reports. “We’re committed to getting the most value for libraries as budgets shift from print to electronic in a tight market,” says Sayar. “We’re providing a common platform for an integrated experience.”
At ALA, ebrary announced that its relationship with Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services has expanded. The two companies will be teaming up to provide libraries with new ways to acquire authoritative content from key publishers. By late summer, YBP is planning to integrate ebrary’s usage statistics with its e-preferred approval plan workflow so libraries will receive alerts about ebook titles that offer a potentially higher circulation.
“We’re unique in that we not only supply the content services but the technology (ebrary Reader and InfoTools) as well,” says Warnock. The ebrary collection has more than 170,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals, and other content from 350-plus top global publishers. Plus, ebrary also offers epublishing services to customers so they can distribute their own PDF content online via ebrary’s servers or their own.
And ebrary isn’t solely fixed on the academic sector. There are also corporate product prospects in the works, says Sayar.
During the past 10 years, ebrary has weathered the industry’s ups and downs, but it still is set on delivering value to librarians. Sayar says ebrary keeps close tabs on what librarians want through focus and advisory groups, and feedback from its sales force. “What’s very surprising is how differently libraries with a common mission and a common experience think about providing solutions and just what those solutions should be,” says Sayar. Warnock says usage statistics provide part of the answer. “You’d think that by having 46,000 titles in 2,000 libraries worldwide, we’d see a common collection for academics, but there isn’t,” he says. “There are only 151 in common.” So whether libraries decide to subscribe, purchase, or host, ebrary is staying true to its mantra: “One e-content platform. Many ways to use it.”
Barbara Brynko
Editor-in-Chief
Information Today
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