Kluwer e-books announced

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

Of possible interest to liblicense-l readers.
_________________________________________________

For Immediate Release

Contact Information:
Christian Alongi
(781) 681-0596
Christian.alongi@wkap.com

Kluwer Online Launches eBook Service For Libraries

New York, New York - Kluwer Online announces a significant expansion of
its eBooks service initiated earlier this year: Institutional eBooks, an
Internet-based service that allows libraries to offer their patrons an
extensive catalog of reference books in Adobe's Acrobat� eBook format.

"We're pleased to offer our world-renowned print publications in e-format
to scientists, researchers, academics and professionals," said Peter
Hendriks, Kluwer's President. "It will provide our customers with multiple
options to reach Kluwer's content."

"Adobe PDF-based eBooks give consumers a visually-rich reading platform
that renders complex content clearly and accurately," said James
Alexander, Director of eBooks at Adobe. "Using Adobe Content Server,
Kluwer can confidently distribute rights-protected eBooks to the
scientific and research communities and satisfy their demands for quality
and portability."

Subscribing libraries will deliver Kluwer Online eBooks to their patrons
via a secure gateway. Librarians can arrange licenses for unlimited
concurrent users, ensuring that popular titles are always available,
without the expense of buying and shelving extra copies. Efficiency and
manageability are designed in; Kluwer's IP-enabled access gateway provides
security and manageability for any size patron base.

Kluwer Online eBooks provide a wide range of functionality for
institutional clients.  Patrons will download Kluwer Online eBooks from
the library's collection for renewable 14-day terms. Patrons may copy and
print from their eBooks in limited quantities, and eBooks also offer
text-to-speech capability, as well as web-enabled hyperlinks that jump
straight from the text to the Internet, without opening a separate
browser.

Kluwer Online's Institutional eBooks service includes administrative tools
which give librarians significant control over their accounts, including
management of patron privileges and online orders for new releases.
Subscribing institutions' sites will be co-branded with a logo on their
main page. In addition, the entire collection will be encoded in MARC
records format to make cataloging and ordering easier and more efficient.

The initial catalog includes some 450 respected titles in the fields of
Biomedicine, Chemistry, Computer Science/Electrical Engineering, Physical
Sciences/Materials Science and Social Sciences. Institutions may purchase
multiple-user access to the entire catalog, or a subject-specific
collection - even single titles. Bulk discounts will available for an
introductory period.

The new Institutional eBooks service joins Kluwer Online's successful
retail eBooks program, and Kluwer Online Journals, which currently offers
online access to more than 50,000 articles in some 750 scholarly and
scientific journals to both institutions and individuals.

About Kluwer
Kluwer, located in the Netherlands, Boston and New York, is one of the
leading scientific publishers and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters
Kluwer nv.  Kluwer annually publishes more than 1500 book titles by
reputed researchers from all over the world, and leading authors from all
scientific subject areas publish regularly in Kluwer's 750 scientific
journals. The electronic platform, Kluwer Online, reaches millions of
researchers in more than 50 countries.

About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer is a multinational information services company with annual
sales of approximately EUR 3.7 billion, employing approximately 19,000 in
Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The company's core activities are
Legal, Tax & Business, Health & Science and Education information. Wolters
Kluwer shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam.