R.R. Donnelley and netLibrary Announce Printing Alliance

Posted on June 1, 2001

netLibrary Inc., a provider of ebooks and content management services, announced the addition of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company to its list of print partners for its Global Print Solution. Global Print Solution is a short-run, digital printing service that allows publishers to facilitate book orders of 10 to 1,000.

Rob Kaufman, netLibrary President and CEO, stated: ``We are excited to be working with R.R. Donnelley. Its recognized, industry-leading communications solutions and printing expertise is a welcome addition to the services we offer publishers.''

R.R. Donnelley's Digital Services Center in Allentown, Pa., is located near many publishers' warehouses and distribution centers. In addition to short-run book manufacturing, the facility also provides a digital asset management solution, an online custom publishing system, ebook conversion and composition services.

``Being a part of netLibrary's network will allow us to offer our digital print solutions to a wide range of University presses and scholarly publishers,'' said Edward E. Lane, president of R.R. Donnelley's Book Publishing Services business. ``netLibrary's database of files, coupled with our short-run print expertise, will enable publishers to economically manage their backlist inventories. It will also give publishers more options when deciding whether to keep titles in print.''

Publishers send netLibrary print-ready files, which netLibrary securely hosts and distributes to R.R. Donnelley and other print partners. Once files are received at netLibrary, engineers apply an internally developed technology to each file that allows the file to be printed on digital printers such as those utilized by R.R. Donnelley. Publishers then use the Global Print Solution Extranet to place print orders directly with R.R. Donnelley.