Mar/3 Ingram Digital announces new eBooks agreement with The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)

March 3, 2008

LaVERGNE, TN – Ingram Digital, an Ingram Content company, today announced that it has been selected by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers as the preferred partner to establish a new co-operative eBook service for its publisher members (numbering over 260 organizations), to enable them to offer eBooks to the academic community.

ALPSP has selected Ingram Digital to provide a range of eBook services to ALPSP members, starting with the establishment of an ALPSP eBook Collection (AeBC) program based on the well-established Ingram Digital platform, MyiLibrary. ALPSP members will be invited to contribute titles to an ALPSP-branded range of subject-based eBook collections which will be offered to libraries and other institutions through the extensive network of MyiLibrary content distribution partners including Swets, the current provider of the ALPSP Learned Journals Collection. The Collection will also offer ALPSP members the opportunity to upload a range of content including unpriced grey literature and research reports, as well as providing a secure route for their members to access the eBooks published by the host society or association.

Contribution of content to the collections will be facilitated by Ingram Digital’s existing agreement with Microsoft, which will give ALPSP members free access to scanning and digitization services as part of the Microsoft Live Search Books program.

ALPSP members will have access to Ingram Digital’s full range of digital content solutions, including CoreSource, the digital asset management and distribution system which is optimized for content hosting, management, distribution, conversion and transformation across multiple eBook formats. From CoreSource ALSPS member publishers will be able to flow content to Lightning Source Inc. to produce print-on-demand titles as well as enable digital content distribution to all markets and channels including both retail and institutional across all world wide markets.

“ALPSP is very pleased to be working with Ingram Digital as the preferred partner to introduce the ‘ALPSP eBooks collection’ as a service for our book publisher members,” said Nick Evans, ALPSP’s Chief Operating Officer. “We believe that high value book content, brought together from among our hundreds of publisher members, including societies, professional associations, inter-governmental organizations and others, and delivered via the popular MyiLibrary solution, will provide a unique and flexible resource for libraries worldwide, and also add real value for our members. The involvement of Swets in the eBook collection will also build on the established success of the ALPSP Learned Journals Collection.”

Mark Carden, General Manager for MyiLibrary in Europe, added: “This agreement gives the members of ALPSP an easy and affordable way to create digital content and to distribute this to the global academic community. We are delighted to be working with ALPSP to create a special collection on the MyiLibrary platform, to help to promote it worldwide, and to continue to offer further services from the huge range of Ingram capabilities, including our CoreSource digital asset management and distribution system.”

ABOUT ALPSP

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) was formed in 1972 and today is the only international trade association representing all types of nonprofit scholarly and professional publishers worldwide. Its 360+ member organizations publish journals, books, databases and provide a range of products and services to the scholarly community worldwide. ALPSP’s mission is to play an active part in shaping the future of academic and professional communication. At this time of unprecedented change in the publishing environment, it believes that nonprofit publishers have a unique role to play. It therefore aims to serve, represent and strengthen the community of nonprofit publishers, and those who work with them. The association provides advocacy and representation, international coverage, cooperative initiatives, professional development through training courses and events, as well as good practice guidelines and information and advice.

ABOUT INGRAM DIGITAL

Ingram Digital is an Ingram Content company. Together with Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc., the Ingram Content companies provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry. Ingram Digital provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital currently has several solution platforms – including MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies – which serve the institutional and educational markets respectively. In addition, Ingram Digital also serves the retail market with full eBook and audio book downloads as well as various search-and-discovery and marketing tools such as widgets. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com