One-Stop Reading

Ebrary.com, due to launch this fall, will be sort of like a book superstore, minus the lattes and the comfy chairs. You can read for free for as long as you'd like. But if you want to print any of the site's materials or cut and paste them, you have to pay. Chief Executive Officer Christopher Warnock describes the site as "an extensive online library" offering patrons access to content from ebrary's many publishing partners, such as Random House, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Columbia University Press.

Warnock allows that ebrary's collection of books, journals, and periodicals might be more challenging to younger children, but the site can be a worthwhile research tool for junior high school students on up. "All the information that we're gathering is authoritative, predominantly nonfiction works in various subject fields," he says.

Still, it's not a Napster for books. Ebrary protects copyrighted material by using a "photocopy" business model. That means users establish accounts—containing as little as $5—with a credit card. Each time a user wants to print, copy, or paste, about 25 cents is deducted from that user's debit account. The proceeds are shared between ebrary and the respective publisher. The hope is that ebrary will increase awareness and sales of a publisher's materials. Toward that end, Google, Yahoo, Excite, and other sites now have access to freely index and search ebrary. Unlike competitor Questia, ebrary doesn't require patrons to pay a subscription fee. (Library Journal recently reported that Questia Media, which went online in January, cut roughly half its workforce and will cut back the pace at which books are added.) "What we're trying to do is to make this copyrighted information a universally accessible resource, and we're not limited by a subscription model," Warnock explains. "We're really working and partnering with publishers."

Recently, DSI Publishing Group joined up with ebrary to make available its collection of digitized reproductions of rare, out-of-print books on early American history, such as Lewis and Clark's journals. Ebrary utilizes the PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, so content is presented in its original design. Speaking of Adobe, Warnock's father, John, who co-founded Adobe, has joined ebrary's board of directors. The younger Warnock notes, "It's very exciting personally and professionally."