Database Provider ebrary Tops 35,000 Titles, Increases Customer Base by 300% and Achieves 95%+ Renewals; Exceeds Major Milestones for 2003.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 2004

ebrary(R) (www.ebrary.com), a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services, today announced that it has increased its customer base by more than 300%, serving hundreds of libraries and other institutions in 35 different countries. At the same time, ebrary has achieved a renewal rate exceeding 95% for its database subscriptions. The addition of these new customers means that over 2 million students and patrons now have instant access to ebrary's growing databases, which currently provide simultaneous, multi-user access to more than 20,000 full-text books as well as over 15,000 reports, maps, sheet music titles and more.

ebrary grew its aggregated databases by more than 30% in 2003 at no additional cost to customers, while adding over 30 new publishers to its growing roster of more than 175 leading academic, professional, and trade publishing partners. ebrary also added new aggregated and publisher-branded databases to its portfolio. Specifically, the former include Public Library Complete, a compilation of eight aggregated, but separately available, databases that collectively cover business & personal finance, career development, computers, history, education, and several other key categories for this market. The new publisher-branded databases include offerings from D&B(R), Harris InfoSource(TM), Datamonitor(R) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers(R).

Furthermore, in 2003 ebrary made significant technological improvements. Among other enhancements, the ebrary system can now be localized to support multiple languages, dynamically selectable by the user, to further extend ebrary's global presence and scalability. The content viewing experience now supports side-by-side presentation of pages, and scales them dynamically for best fit. Additionally, ebrary's search function now enables Boolean search for advanced query capability, and the overall user interface is configurable on a customer-by-customer basis.

"2003 was a great success for ebrary and our customers, as measured by increased demand in the marketplace, an almost perfect renewal rate, a significant increase in the breadth and depth of our titles, major enhancements to our technology, and a rapidly expanding number of end users," said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary. "Taken together, these results validate our multi-user access model and its significant advantages over competitors' 'single check-out' e-Book and per-seat site licensing models. In 2004, we expect to continue to expand our databases and offerings to meet the increasing market demand we see."

Databases from ebrary

ebrary is the first company to offer libraries simultaneous, multi-user access to growing databases of books and other authoritative documents from world-class publishers. The company currently offers 16 aggregated databases that cover all academic subject areas, as well as ones of general interest. It also licenses six complementary, publisher-branded databases from organizations recognized as leaders in specific fields of study.

ebrary is also the only company with technology that turns every word in every PDF document into a highly interactive learning experience. Simply by selecting specific words, researchers can use ebrary InfoTools(TM) to instantly access additional information, including abstracts and reference databases within the library, and biographical information, maps and translations on the web.

ebrary offers its customers the following key benefits:

-- Simultaneous, multi-user access - content is available at any

time, from anywhere.

-- Access to new content added during the subscription term, all

at no additional cost.

-- Full-text search within and across documents.

-- Advanced research capabilities through ebrary InfoTools(TM).

-- Integration with existing ILS systems and digital resources.

-- Machine-Readable Cataloging 21 (MARC 21) records include

direct links to each title from the 856 fields.

-- Highlighting, bookmarking, annotating and other tools.

-- Reporting tools and usage statistics that meet International

Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) standards.

-- Instant and dynamic access to pages from streaming PDF

technology that maintains the exact appearance of a document's

printed version.

-- Affordable pricing based on library type and size.

About ebrary

ebrary is a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services. The company has developed a powerful system that cost-effectively and -efficiently creates highly interactive, online content databases, from which it produces numerous market-specific applications. ebrary was named to the 2003 eContent 100 list of leading companies in the digital content industry.

ebrary licenses its unique database technology to organizations that seek to reduce costs, increase revenues and improve efficiency by securely distributing their own content over the Internet. ebrary also uses its own technology to create databases containing content from leading publishers, which it then licenses to libraries and other institutions worldwide. ebrary currently offers over 35,000 full-text books, sheet music titles, maps, reports and other authoritative documents from more than 175 leading academic, trade and professional publishers. The company also operates a consumer-facing site- ebrary Discover - designed for individuals that do not have access to its database collections through their library. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. with offices in New York, ebrary is privately held and funded by Random House Ventures LLC, Pearson plc and The McGraw-Hill Companies.