Ebrary in the offing

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Clearly, e-books are about to be powerfully among us.  Reports of new
ventures and startups, ones that will be licensed to libraries, are
welcomed on this list. For another soon-to-be-launched e-book and
e-information vendor, see:

http://www.ebrary.com

On their site is a link to Seybold Editors "Hot Picks" which takes the
reader to:

http://www.seyboldreports.com/SRPS/free/hotpicks/hotpicks.html

>From that Seybold report:

"Making its debut will be Ebrary.com, a research-oriented Web site whose
founders include Christopher Warnock, son of Adobe cofounder John Warnock.

Ebrary.com has developed copyright-protection technology it hopes will
stimulate the sell-by-the-slice business model for distributing research
information over the Web. The technology, implemented as an Acrobat
plug-in, enables researchers to browse material but not download, copy or
print it without first purchasing the parts they want to use.  The system
will include built-in citations.

Ebrary.com plans to make money by taking a 20-40 percent cut of the sales,
with the balance going back to the publishers."

The ebrary web site offers to send more information to publishers who wish
to participate and to libraries that may be interested.  What little we
have heard of their possible pricing/charging model is intriguing.

Ann Okerson
Yale University Library
Ann.Okerson@yale.edu