Academic E-Publishing: Some Key Players

E-LIBRARY COMPANIES

Ebrary. Started by Christopher Warnock -- whose father founded Adobe Systems Inc. -- the company plans to provide full-text versions of books, periodicals,

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and archival works in Adobe PDF format. Patrons would pay only for content that they copy onto their computers or print. With financial backing in undisclosed amounts from major publishers, it expects to begin operations by the end of June.

Jones e-global Library. A division of JonesKnowledge.com, which sells distance-education software and runs Jones International University, the company organizes discipline-specific packages of online resources and sells them, along with reference help, to colleges.

NetLibrary. The two-year-old company sells full-text books to academic, public, and corporate libraries. Its collection of 33,000-plus volumes is available with proprietary reading software to subscribing libraries and individuals with private accounts.

Questia. The digital-book company, which focuses on an undergraduate clientele, began selling unlimited access to its collection of 35,000 e-books and journals in January.

XanEdu.com. A division of Bell & Howell Information and Learning, the company sells electronic access to journals, periodicals, and other information from a giant commercial archive called ProQuest.

E-TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS

Digital Learning Interactive. Founded two years ago by Robert Fisher with the help of his former mentor at Harvard University, the historian Charles Maier, the company hires professors to develop material for its interactive textbooks. It has created six products, in social sciences and the humanities, that are available on the Web or in CD-ROM form, and has eight more in the works, including a title on the Harlem Renaissance by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

OpenMind Publishing Group. The publishing venture allows professors to sell content to the company's database and also to withdraw material -- either entire books or selected parts -- to produce customized textbooks. It has developed 10 full-fledged books, with more in the works.

Thinkwell. Founded in 1997, the company develops electronic textbooks that use video clips of the authors presenting material. The venture has developed 13 titles and plans to add 10 more by the end of 2001.

E-TEXTBOOK CONVERTERS

MetaText. Founded in 1998 and acquired by netLibrary in March 2000, the company has contracts with a number of publishers, including a deal with Pearson to convert hundreds of textbooks much the way WizeUp Digital Textbooks does.

Rovia. The company provides services to publishers, including Houghton Mifflin and Thomson, that are similar to those of its competitors, but uses a different business model. Users can subscribe to an entire book or pay less for access to selected portions; they can also "rent" access to the book for periods of less than a semester.

WizeUp Digital Textbooks. Founded as the Numina Group Corporation in 1990, the company obtains textbook content from publishers, including Thomson and McGraw-Hill, then adds features, like digital searching and electronic annotation, to create interactive versions.

SOFTWARE AND DEVICE MAKERS

Adobe Systems. Producer of Photoshop and other graphics programs, the company has designed a version of its popular Acrobat page-display software to handle e-books. The Acrobat eBook reader is free online.

Gemstar-TV Guide. The company works with R.C.A. and other hardware manufacturers to sell a tablet-like computer dedicated to displaying e-books. In January 2000, it bought two companies that made similar devices, SoftBook Press (which sold the SoftBook), and NuvoMedia (which sold the Rocket eBook). The company now supports two models -- the REB 1100, which has a black-and-white screen that measures 5.5 inches diagonally, weighs 17 ounces, and costs about $300; and the REB 1200, which features an 8-inch color screen, weighs 33 ounces, and costs $600 to $700.

goReader. The company is about to release tablet-sized e-book devices for college and high-school students. Two models will be available this fall: The smaller has a 10.4-inch screen and weighs about three pounds; the larger has a 12.1-inch screen and weighs four pounds. The prices for the machines have not been determined, but they are expected to cost about $400 and $500, respectively. Several textbook publishers have signed deals with the company.

Microsoft. The company offers free e-book-display software called Reader, available for laptop or desktop computers running Windows, and for hand-held computers that run Microsoft's PocketPC operating system.

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