ABEBOOKS, OCLC TEAM UP TO OFFER NEW SERVICES TO LIBRARIES
17th January 2002
(Victoria, B.C.) - AbeBooks, the world's largest network of independent
booksellers, and OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, are linking
to provide librarians and their users access to the largest source
of out-of-print books on the internet.
Users will be able
to link to the abebooks web site (www.abebooks.com) to source out-of-print,
secondhand, and rare copies of the books they are looking for in OCLC's
WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database, through the OCLC
FirstSearch service, an online reference service. In turn, visitors
to the abebooks web site who cannot find what they are looking for will
have the option to find the title in their local library through WorldCat.
"This partnership
with OCLC represents our goal of providing service that is catered to
the needs of specific user groups," said Brent James, abebooks
CEO. "OCLC is one of the key players in library resources. Our
partnership will allow library users to find rare and out-of-print titles
in an efficient, cost-effective way from a reliable source."
"OCLC is creating access points to WorldCat, and subsequently to
libraries, through the web in a collaborative environment and fostering
relationships with partners such as abebooks," said Frank Hermes,
vice president, OCLC Cooperative Discovery Services.
WorldCat offers
more than 48 million bibliographic records-representing library materials
in some 400 languages-and continues to grow at a rate of more than 2
million records a year.
About OCLC
Headquartered
in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, is a nonprofit
organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource
sharing and preservation services to 41,000 libraries in 82 countries
and territories. OCLC was founded in 1967 to improve access to the world's
information and reduce information costs, and conducts ongoing research
to develop technologies to support that mission. Forest Press, a division
of OCLC since 1988, publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.
More information about OCLC and OCLC regional service providers is available
on the web www.oclc.org.
About abebooks
AbeBooks is the
world's largest book site, listing over 35 million books. With offices
in Canada and Germany, abebooks provides independent booksellers with
business support, technological infrastructure and international marketing,
enabling booksellers of any size to compete on an equal footing with
book superstores. Through its acquisition of Germany's JustBooks, now
abebooks Europe, the company now serves over 10,000 member booksellers
worldwide via web sites in English, German, and French. AbeBooks was
launched on the Internet in May of 1996 and offers consumers the most
complete collection of rare, used, and out-of-print books available
anywhere.
Contacts
Richard Davies, PR & Publicity Mgr., AbeBooks.com
Ph: 250-412-3238
rdavies@abebooks.com
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