BiblioBoard Announces Its Rapid Growth in 2015, Including the Addition of Content Partners and a New Statewide Ebook Project

Ahead of the 2015 American Library Association annual meeting, BiblioBoard has made a number of announcements related to their business growth in the first half of 2015. The library platform launched in mid-2013 and takes an innovative approach to the public library market by focusing on both licensing content from leading book and video publishers and on empowering libraries to easily integrate local, user-generated content (authors, photographers, artists, genealogists etc.). All content is available in unlimited multi-user access models, removing wait lists, turn-aways and other encumbrances to the modern digital library experience. In separate announcements, they have launched a major platform upgrade and announced significant growth in their Community Engagement projects, including their SELF-e partnership with Library Journal.

"We are seeing a great reaction from libraries," says founder and Chief Business Officer Mitchell Davis. "Librarians have long been in a place where not disappointing patrons means buying multiple copies of overpriced ebooks-many of which would, in short order, become totally useless. With our model, they can affordably supply top tier ebooks to everyone in their community in an engaging and modern way with no fear of success or runaway budgets. Today's ebook lending systems help them meet the needs of library ebook 'power-users,' but with our approach, they can attract new digital patrons, including digital natives, which they know is critical."

Library Adoption

BiblioBoard has announced a multi-year deal with Minitex, the state library consortia of Minnesota. "We're proud to be starting a Minnesota-based independent publisher e-collection. Our libraries have a long tradition of supporting our robust literary community. BiblioLabs is the perfect partner for us to make this content available statewide," states Valerie Horton, Director of Minitex.

This becomes the fourth state to adopt BiblioBoard's technology in statewide ebook projects (North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Arizona being the others). "We see a clear move toward states getting actively involved in their own ebook future, and we are proud to be powering the most innovative and successful projects in the country," said Carolyn Morris, BiblioBoard's VP of Digital. "We are so excited to be working with Minitex and so are our publishers," she added. In addition to the four state contracts, BiblioBoard's customer list has grown significantly across all library types and sizes and includes leading systems such as: NYPL, Brooklyn, Queens, Cuyahoga, Seattle Public, Los Angeles Public and Bexar (BiblioTech) in Texas.

"I think we have done a great job listening to libraries and refining our value proposition over the past two years. One thing we know is that happy libraries help you get other libraries to try out what you are doing and the network effect of that is powerful. The BiblioBoard community collaborates by members actively adding features and services to our shared software. More libraries create a better patron user experience through collaboration. We just want to keep making libraries happy with what we do and how we do it. It is a strategy that is working," Morris added.

New Publishers & Video Producers

In the past few months, the company has added dozens of new publishers and video producers, expanding its unlimited multi-user library to well over 100,000 items. For public libraries, BiblioBoard has added thousands of comics and graphic novels from publishers like Dark Horse Comics, Valiant and Dynamite Entertainment, as well as content from top book publishers geared at underserved public library communities such as early learners, reluctant readers, lifetime learners, LGBTQ+, cultural resources, foreign languages, job resources and more. Publishers such as Wiley, Gibbs Smith, Permanent Press, Harmony Ink, USC Press, African Books Collective and dozens more have recently added content to the program.

"We are very excited to be working with BiblioBoard," Dark Horse director of digital publishing Mark Bernardi said. "They have a great team of people and a great platform and their enthusiasm for graphic novels and the library market in general is infectious. Speaking with other publishers they work with I've heard nothing but glowing reviews. I'm anticipating big things from this partnership."

With more than 450 publishers on board, BiblioBoard Director of Publisher Relations Jonah Canter says the model is working for publishers and libraries. "We are generating revenue for publishers, and they talk to one another. Libraries are telling us the kind of content they want to be able to make available to their patrons in more engaging ways, and we are getting that content for them. We see ourselves as serving the interests of both and creating a fair and balanced model for them to both succeed."

They have also inked deals with some major video production companies including National Film Board Canada, Music Video Distributors, Nevco Health, Travel with Kids, Stash Media, Real Time Health and added K-12 educational publishers such as Rourke Media, Cherry Lake, Sleeping Bear, Orca Books, and more.

BiblioBoard will be at booth 1146 at ALA Annual.

About BiblioBoard:

BiblioBoard is the PatronsFirst™ mobile library. The folks behind BiblioBoard are a powerful team based in Charleston, S.C. 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. BiblioBoard, used by nearly 2,700 libraries and in multiple statewide projects, reaches 30 million patrons. BiblioBoard has won numerous design and product awards including the 2015 Modern Library Award.

To post a comment, you must register and login.