Publishers Invest in Ebrary

Posted on October 13, 2000

ebrary, an online research resource, has announced a joint investment by Random House Inc., Pearson and The McGraw-Hill Companies. ebrary offers research-oriented content including books, journals, maps, periodicals and digitally archived material. Internet users will gain access to this content without having to obtain a membership or pay subscription fees.

ebrary also allows patrons to acquire information by enabling the copying of text or printing of pages for a photocopier-like fee. In this manner ebrary provides publishers, authors and information providers with new revenues. Participating publishers and information providers may determine the degree of access and costs associated with each of their titles.

``The fact that this is the first-ever co-investment by three major publishers in this space demonstrates the broad range of support for ebrary's model and philosophy,'' said Christopher Warnock, chief executive officer of ebrary. ``ebrary is now poised, with the help of our partners, to finally make the content of books, periodicals and other traditionally printed documents accessible to everyone on the Internet in a manner that benefits publishers, libraries, booksellers and Internet users, while protecting the authors' copyrights. We are able to do this with the backing and endorsement of each of the biggest publishers and information providers in the trade, professional, and education fields.''