News release: xrefer Announces Online Reference Research Award Winner

["Ellen McCullough" <ellen.mccullough@xrefer.com>]

--Posted to multiple lists; please excuse any cross-postings--

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	

xrefer Announces Online Reference Research Award Winner
Recipient to Present Findings at Upcoming Conferences

BOSTON, MA, November 2, 2004-xrefer, provider of online reference services
to libraries worldwide, has announced the winner of its Online Reference
Research Award.  Cynthia L. Gregory, head of electronic resources at the
Archbishop Alter Library, College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio,
was awarded a $1,000 grant toward research aimed at uncovering
undergraduates' attitudes towards and usage patterns of ebooks.  The study
reveals surprising student perceptions about ebooks versus print books
that run counter to widespread assumptions about the reception of ebooks
at universities.

Ms. Gregory will present her research findings at two upcoming
conferences, on November 5th at the Charleston Conference in Charleston,
South Carolina and on November 9th at the Virtual Reference Desk
Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.

At Charleston, Ms. Gregory will participate in a panel discussion, "EBooks
and EContent: Evolving Perspectives on Users' Needs."  The session will
offer several perspectives on econtent, covering various presentation
models, usability, and how print publishers are transitioning from print
to online.  Other panelists include Rick Lugg, partner at R2 Consulting,
Karen Christensen, CEO of Berkshire Publishing Group, and JL Needham,
strategic partner development manager at Google, Inc.  The panel will be
moderated by Ellen McCullough, marketing director at xrefer.

xrefer announced that it was accepting proposals for the award in March
2004, to support research into electronic content usage in libraries. "In
delivering electronic content, ebooks have come a long way," said John G.
Dove, CEO of xrefer.  "At xrefer, however, we're convinced that there's
more work to be done.  EContent users want an experience that is more than
book-bound, database-bound or publisher-bound.  This study underscores the
need for comprehensive, well-organized online collections that deliver not
just search results or flat content, but meaningful connections across
resources that mirror the ways in which people discover and learn."


About xrefer xrefer (www.xrefer.com) delivers technology-enhanced online
reference services to libraries and their users worldwide.  The company's
flexible subscription service, xreferplus Ready-Reference, features
authoritative, aggregated content from hundreds of reference books, with 2
million entries covering every major subject.  By combining content from
multiple publishers with unique cross-referencing technology, xreferplus
delivers authoritative answers fast.  With xrefer's new Specialist
Reference service, libraries can develop reference collections that
specifically target the research needs of their institutions' most
advanced programs.  Free, 30-day trials of xreferplus Ready-Reference are
available at http://www.xrefer.com/freetrial. Librarians can trial
Specialist Reference titles by sending an e-mail to info@xrefer.com.

For more information contact Ellen McCullough at (617) 426-5710 or by
e-mail at ellen.mccullough@xrefer.com.

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