Charleston, South Carolina (PRWEB) January 17, 2014
BiblioLabs® announces major platform upgrades to BiblioBoard, the award-winning mobile and web platform for libraries, in advance of this year’s 2014 American Library Association (ALA) mid-winter conference. The company also announces the addition of thousands of new books in areas of high demand for libraries, including graphic novels, comic books, manga, romance novels and children’s books. BiblioBoard, delivering books and other multimedia content in a ReadersFirst-friendly manner, eliminates the concept of checkouts, returns, multi-user limits and other impediments that have been proven to deter e-book usage by library patrons.
Individual libraries and library consortia in the United States and Europe have quickly embraced BiblioBoard. In less than one year since launching, BiblioBoard has been adopted by JISC in the UK and by the Massachusetts Library System (representing 1,700 libraries) in conjunction with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioner’s (MBLC) Statewide Resource Sharing Committee for their MA eBook Project.
“We are adding individual libraries at a brisk pace, but these larger state and national deals really validate the paradigm shift BiblioBoard represents,” says Mitchell Davis, founder and Chief Business Officer of BiblioLabs. “The modern librarian is a local link between patrons and media, but it is not the librarian’s job to build world-class technology platforms. That job falls to outside vendors who, until now, have not innovated with the same sense of urgency as digital consumer companies like Apple, Amazon and Netflix. The result is that library patrons are very frustrated.”
BiblioBoard launched in March 2013 and immediately gained recognition for its intuitive design, winning a Publishing Innovation Award and being named “Best New Mobile App for Libraries” by The Charleston Advisor. “Consumer companies set the bar high for mobile user experience, and libraries have to meet these high expectations. Our platform creates an engaging web and mobile experience across all media types in a unified and elegant interface. BiblioBoard makes libraries competitive for the attention of patrons in a fast-moving digital world,” Davis adds.
Dianne Carty, Acting Director for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, believes BiblioBoard can help libraries step up to the digital challenge. “A recent Pew internet study showed 94% of Americans believe libraries are important to their communities, which is an amazing approval rating and very encouraging,” she says. “But the same report showed a gap between that goodwill and actual engagement of patrons.
Our MA eBook Project was developed to close this gap. The approach BiblioBoard takes to patron experience, and the addition of all this great new publisher content so quickly, shows why we chose them as a partner on this important statewide project. We are both executing with the sense of urgency this requires.”
Some of the recent enhancements to BiblioBoard include seamless syncing across all platforms, new architecture to support millions of concurrent users, ePUB content support, indexing for full-text search inside content, simple and advanced search with Interlinked Content Graph to improve discovery, COUNTER 4.0 compliance and comprehensive patron authentication support.
BiblioLabs initially made its name in the library world by providing mobile app publishing tools to top historical organizations around the world, including the British Library and the National Library of Spain. Now, the company is working with a host of mainstream publishers in response to library demand. “Libraries loved our technology and wanted us to persuade traditional publishers to license content in a manner that was friendly for patrons. We are very pleased with the success so far. Publishers understand the potential impact of our technology,” says Davis.
“BiblioBoard’s unique business model seems like a good fit for us both financially and strategically,” says Steve Floyd of August House. “Libraries have always been important to us and we plan to be able to sell our content to them in a way that lets them deliver a fantastic patron experience,” he added.
“This is a pretty amazing partnership,” says Darren Davis, Publisher and President of Bluewater Productions, whose graphic novels are already selling on BiblioBoard. “I was a library kid growing up and to see how they are embracing digital content thrills me. Libraries have always been a huge part of our outreach because of the positive impact they make on communities. To view what BiblioBoard has done is mind blowing. It will make it easier for librarians to purchase.” And Mitchell Davis believes BiblioLabs is just getting started. “We feel validated by the overwhelming support we have received from libraries, the positive reaction from patrons and the continued buy-in from publishers. We believe if libraries are going to stay relevant in the 21st century and beyond, they need to deliver digital products in the same way consumer companies deliver them.
“We have built a system to deliver that experience. We’ve also added to it. In the same place that libraries provide access to great content from publishers, they can publish their own content. It’s like if Netflix married YouTube—except with BiblioBoard, it’s not just videos. You can view your favorite content from an extensive database, or upload your own from your collections. Imagine a world where you can access the best in digital books, movies, historical databases, songs—everything—in one place, with your library card.”
About BiblioBoard
BiblioBoard is the PatronsFirst mobile library. The folks behind BiblioBoard are a powerful team based in Charleston, SC. They aim to transform access to information by providing a world-class user experience that thrills library patrons and is profitable for publishers. BiblioBoard is moving library content delivery into the future in a sustainable way. BiblioLabs is also a proud member of the Charleston Digital Corridor. To learn more, visit http://www.biblioboard.com.
Contact:
Carolyn Morris
Vice President Digital Products
603.244.6925
carolyn(at)bibliolabs.com
http://www.biblioboard.com
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