Baker & Taylor to Offer Rich Digital Media Content From Elsevier on Blio

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker & Taylor, Inc., the world's largest distributor of physical and digital books and entertainment products, is proud to announce it has entered into an agreement with Elsevier – a leading publisher of scientific, medical and technical books – to provide rich, highly-formatted content on Blio. Blio is the revolutionary e-reader software application created by knfbReading Technology and powered by Baker & Taylor.

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"Baker & Taylor is thrilled to add Elsevier's titles, which are essential in the scientific and medical communities, to Blio," said Tom Morgan, Chairman and CEO of Baker & Taylor. "Blio is the perfect e-reader software to showcase Elsevier's books, which provide highly specialized and informative text and graphics. Readers will enjoy a truly interactive reading – and learning – experience."

By leveraging strong relationships with the publishing community as well with its best-of-breed digital technology partners LibreDigital and knfbReading Technology, Baker & Taylor is converting new content for Blio every day. With more than 44,000 customers in 120 countries, Baker & Taylor's global reach makes it the perfect partner to provide superior content management and distribution for the world's most innovative e-reader application. Baker & Taylor's affiliation with Blio is its latest step in bringing comprehensive digital media services to multiple channels and to a wide variety of customers, strengthening its position as the premier source for physical and digital media distribution.

"We are very excited to take part in Baker & Taylor's exciting and product-enhancing Blio program and to support its multimedia assets to highlight some of the original video content we are producing," said Tom Rosenthal, Senior Manager, Electronic Product Sales at Elsevier. "Together with Baker & Taylor we are delivering a unique reading and learning experience."

By the end of the year, Elsevier plans to launch between 8,000 and 9,000 titles, including titles within its life science, physical sciences and professional lists. Elsevier's Focal Press has plans to introduce enhanced titles with embedded media on Blio for its post production list, including titles with 3-D effects.

Blio, featuring cutting-edge print-to-speech (for rights-enabled titles) and full-color 3-D technologies, is the brainchild of futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. Blio delivers the most advanced, flexible and open reading platform in the world. Blio is unrivaled in its ability to bring to life books that Elsevier is renowned for publishing – medical and scientific text that pair words and graphics to convey complex information. Blio is also hardware neutral, meaning it works on a number of devices, including personal computers, laptops, netbooks and iPhones, not to mention up and coming tablets.

About Baker & Taylor

Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.baker-taylor.com) is a global information and entertainment services company that offers print and digital books and entertainment products along with value-added services to libraries, educational institutions and retailers. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company has been in existence for more than 180 years, developing long-term relationships with major suppliers, including book publishers, movie studios and music labels. Baker & Taylor maintains one of the largest combined in-stock book, video and music inventories in the United States, and services the broadest customer base in the industry. Baker & Taylor is majority owned by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., an institutional private equity fund managed by Castle Harlan Inc., a leading private equity investment firm.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company publishes more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

About knfbReading Technology Inc.

knfbReading Technology Inc. is a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies – headed by CEO Ray Kurzweil, a 30-year innovator and pioneer in assistive technologies and the inventor of the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind – and the National Federation of the Blind, the largest, most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States.

SOURCE Baker & Taylor, Inc.