Cornell University Library expands partnership with Amazon

[Terry Ehling <te32@cornell.edu>]

Cornell University Library Expands Print-on-Demand Offerings More 
than 80,000 Books To Be Offered for Reprint on Amazon.com

ITHACA, N.Y. (Feb. 3, 2009) - Expanding an ongoing partnership 
with Amazon.com, Cornell University Library is increasing its 
print-on-demand offerings to more than 80,000 titles.

By the end of 2009, tens of thousands of new books will be added 
to the approximately 6,000 items in Cornell's collection already 
available on Amazon. All of the books are in the public domain in 
the United States, and many are currently out of print.

"Although demand for online access to digital books has been 
growing, books as artifacts continue to have a real value," said 
Oya Rieger, associate university librarian for information 
technologies. "This initiative supports the reading and research 
patterns of users who prefer the affordances provided by physical 
books - they support deep reading, underlining and writing 
comments in the margins. The Web is great for easy access and 
browsing, but because digital content can sometimes be ephemeral, 
physical books continue to serve as valuable reference sources on 
your shelf."

Positive feedback from users helped contribute to the decision to 
expand the number of titles available. "The publication of this 
little book adds valuable primary source material for students of 
the War of 1812. Bravo to Cornell for making it available," one 
customer wrote. Another said, "Words cannot express how grateful 
I am that Cornell University saw fit to republish these two 
papers."

The books that will be added throughout 2009 were digitized with 
the support of Microsoft over the last two years. These new 
volumes represent a substantial part of the Library's rare and 
unique offerings printed before 1923.

They will reflect Cornell's subject strengths, including American 
history, English literature, astronomy, food and wine, general 
engineering, the history of science, home economics, hospitality 
and travel, human sexuality, labor relations, Native American 
materials, ornithology, veterinary medicine and women's studies. 
Collections already available for reprint from Amazon include New 
York state historical literature, core historical literature in 
agriculture, historical math monographs and materials related to 
home economics.

Cornell University Library has been a cutting-edge participant 
with print-on-demand services and mass digitization initiatives, 
partnering with multiple outlets to make its collections 
available to the public. The partnership with Amazon began in 
2006, and the Library is currently engaged in a large-scale 
digitization initiative with Google that will create 500,000 
digitized books over the next six years.

For a sample of the titles offered on Amazon, go to 
http://bookstore.library.cornell.edu, and check Amazon.com 
throughout the year to see new titles as they are added.

About Cornell University Library

One of the leading academic research libraries in the United 
States, Cornell University Library is a highly valued partner in 
teaching, research and learning at Cornell University. The 
Library is a leader in digital initiatives, actively building its 
growing network of online resources in addition to offering a 
full spectrum of services, rare books and manuscripts. The 
Library's outstanding collections - from medieval manuscripts to 
hip hop and from ancient Chinese texts to comic books - preserve 
the past and pave the way for future scholarship. To learn more 
about Cornell University Library, visit 
<http://library.cornell.edu>.

Press release: http://tinyurl.com/aw9sba
Contact: Gwen Glazer
Phone: (607) 254-8390
E-mail: gglazer@cornell.edu