Announcement: German libraries select bepress for nationwide licen=

["Irene Perciali" <iperciali@bepress.com>]

--Announcement--

bepress licenses its complete electronic collection, ResearchNow
Full Access, to all German libraries

Berkeley, CA, April 12, 2007 - The Berkeley Electronic Press
("bepress") is very pleased to announce that ResearchNow Full
Access (http://researchnow.bepress.com), its collection of 36
peer-reviewed electronic journals and "grey literature" from a
variety of scholarly sources, has been selected by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (German Research Foundation) for a
nationwide license.

The bepress collection was selected at the initiative of the German National
Library of Economics, and will contribute to the DFG's efforts to
make premier-quality digital publications available to all German
libraries and German citizens.

The DFG's criteria for selecting bepress reflect what is already
at the heart of bepress's mission: high-quality and
forward-facing scholarly content, a reliable and innovative
technical format, an unmatched price-to-quality ratio, and
extensive coverage of a variety of technical and non-technical
fields. The Berkeley Electronic Press also shares with the DFG a
commitment to provide cutting-edge scholarly work to all
scholars, students, and citizens at large, as reflected in
bepress's library-friendly pricing and its scholar-friendly guest
access policy.

The Berkeley Electronic Press is the youngest publisher selected
to work with the DFG, joining Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, and the
Oxford University Press and others in serving its complete
electronic content to the German academic community and public.

According to Horst Thomsen, Director of the German National
Library of Economics, "The German National Library of Economics
has prepared the purchase of bepress journals for the DFG. As a
National Library with one of the largest collections of economic
literature worldwide, we are pleased to help provide electronic
content on a broad base within Germany. With the bepress
journals, we can offer high quality journals of relevance for the
research community."

The license is far-reaching in its scope: it includes access for
all public and private German universities, as well as the
extensive German State library system. In an important provision
unique to this agreement, individual German citizens also qualify
for direct access to the collection.

"We are very pleased to work with the DFG to provide such
extensive access, not only to members of academic institutions,
but to citizens and independent researchers across Germany. We
commend the DFG on its forward-thinking approach to supporting
scholarly knowledge: allocating resources to purchase resources
in this coordinated manner and making them accessible to all
citizens," said Aaron Edlin, President and CEO of bepress.

The license will provide full access to ResearchNow content for
two years, which includes any content added during the course of
the two years, as well as perpetual access to the content
published during the license. Additionally, German libraries will
be able to mount and preserve bepress content on their local
servers. Working with the DFG adds another dimension to bepress's
existing consortium customer base in North America, which
includes major consortia such as the Ontario Council of Research
Libraries (OCUL) and the Council of Prairie and Pacific
University Libraries (COPPUL) in Canada, as well as many U.S.
consortia such as the California Digital Library, OhioLink, the
Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), the Greater Western
Library Association, and the NorthEast Research Libraries.

About The Berkeley Electronic Press

Founded by academics in 1999, The Berkeley Electronic Press
("bepress") is both a publisher of peer-reviewed electronic
journals and a software developer, having created the
institutional repository platform currently marketed by ProQuest
as Digital Commons. The Company produces tools to improve
scholarly communication via innovative and effective means of
content production and dissemination. Bepress has a portfolio of
products and services that reduces the costs of and barriers to
access.

For additional information on bepress, please see:
www.bepress.com.

About the German Research Foundation (DFG)

The DFG is the central public funding organization responsible
for promoting research in Germany. Its activities focus on
funding research projects carried out by scientists and academics
working at universities or research institutes and on selecting
the best projects in a process of fair and transparent
competition. The work of the DFG serves all branches of science
and the humanities to reflect its role as the self-governing
organisation of German science and research. Its legal status is
that of an association under private law. DFG membership is made
up of German universities, non-university research institutions,
scientific associations as well as the Academies of Science and
Humanities. The DFG receives its funding from the federal (Bund)
and state (L=E4nder) authorities, which are represented on all
decision-making bodies, whereas scientists and academics hold the
majority.

For additional information on the German Research Foundation
(DGG), please see: www.dfg.de/en/.

Irene Perciali, Ph.D.
Journals Manager
The Berkeley Electronic Press
Phone: (510) 665-1200 Ext. 142
www.bepress.com <http://www.bepress.com/>

bepress: The New Standard in Scholarly Publishing since 1999