NEW YORK, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- AcademicPub, the higher education unit of SharedBook Inc., today made a three-part announcement underscoring rapid adoption of the service since its April 2011 launch.

According to Caroline Vanderlip, CEO, SharedBook Inc., entered into two new publishing relationships, including one with industry-leader Springer Science + Business Media, and two new distribution partnerships. These innovations will ease the ability of educators to create content and obtain AcademicPub products. Additionally, a new academic advisory board has been created to help guide the unit through an accelerating period of customer growth.

"We are moving on multiple fronts, a necessity in a higher-ed market as dynamic as this one," said Vanderlip. "Publishing relationships make our offering richer, distribution partnerships let us grow our business faster, and a strong advisory board helps us to work smarter."

In the content sphere, AcademicPub finalized contracts with two leading publishers of quality content for higher education – Springer, a highly respected provider of books, journals and encyclopedias in science, technology and medicine; and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). These new partnerships bring AcademicPub's total current number of content partners to 28, representing nearly 400,000 units of material across a range of academic disciplines. A complete list of partners is here.

On the distribution front, AcademicPub has signed separate – and complementary – partnership deals with two of the oldest and largest companies in the distribution of course materials – Ambassador College Bookstores ("Ambassador") and Nebraska Book Company ("NBC").  Ambassador, launched in 1973, is the premier provider of bookstore services and solutions to for-profit career colleges and universities around the country. NBC, founded in 1915 as a single bookstore operator, now operates 280+ brick-and-mortar bookstores on traditional college campuses and provides wholesale textbook services and technology to another 2,500 stores nationwide.

With Ambassador, AcademicPub will be providing the custom book engine for Ambassador's SourcePak, a new white-label product allowing Ambassador's clients, for-profit, career schools, to create custom books, in a professionally bound printed book or as an eBook. SourcePak will be fully integrated with Ambassador's state of the art technology and proprietary supply chain software SourceOne.

In partnership with NBC, AcademicPub will integrate its application with NBC's industry leading JumpBooks® Digital Delivery System and Textbook Requisitions System to support custom book creation, adoption and fulfillment via NBC's network of bookstores and bookstore customers serving traditional higher education.

Created specifically for educators, AcademicPub allows instructors to assemble custom books in real time, with copyright clearance and pricing at the click of a mouse, and choice of delivery options, as either eBooks or as professionally manufactured and printed books.

"With our content library continuing to grow, and two key distribution partnerships now in place, we are poised to command a significant share of the custom academic book market in the coming school year," said Vanderlip. "And with growth comes responsibility, which is a principal reason that we have created an academic advisory board."

AcademicPub's Academic Advisory Board will focus on the nexus between academia and the AcademicPub offering, providing input and expertise on what is needed in the classroom.  The Academic Advisory Board currently has two members, with additional members to be announced this summer. The two current members are:

• Daniel J. Flint, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing and director of the marketing Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville; and
• Adelaida Quesada, professor of mathematics, Miami Dade College.

About Ambassador College Bookstores

Ambassador is a premier provider of bookstore services and solutions to the for-profit, career college segment of the industry providing state-of the-art technology, customized interfaces, and unsurpassed service to students, faculty, and administrators. Ambassador has tremendous experience working with large and small for-profit, career schools throughout the country, providing dedicated online bookstores branded for each school, auto-fill services, and on-campus bookstores, or a combination of all three. Ambassador provides all required course materials (textbooks, eBooks, customized kits, art supplies, portfolios, scrubs, uniforms, medical supplies, software, computer equipment, and school branded logo merchandise). SourceOne is Ambassador's proprietary course material management and fulfillment supply chain software, which features a dedicated secure client portal, enabling institutions to put in place a full range of controls regarding students' transactions, including school authorized voucher purchases. For more information, please visit www.ambassadorbookstores.com.

About Nebraska Book Company

Nebraska Book Company (NBC) began in 1915 with a single bookstore near the University of Nebraska campus but now serves millions of students through its network of more than 280 stores located across the country. NBC's Textbook Division serves more than 2,500 bookstores through the sale of nearly seven million textbooks annually and boasts more than 1,800 technology platforms and e-commerce sites installed in college stores nationwide. Additional information about Nebraska Book Company can be found at the company's website: www.nebook.com.

About SharedBook

SharedBook's technology platform assembles, composes, prices and delivers custom books for educators, consumers, online publishers and enterprises. AcademicPub, built especially for educators, allows for immediate creation and inclusion of copyright-cleared, custom course materials from anywhere, such as web articles, self-generated lectures or with material from the AcademicPub Library. Digital or print distribution generates a fast and easy way for educators to provide an engaging educational experience, with lower prices and up-to-the-minute materials for students. Headquartered in New York since 2004, SharedBook Inc. is privately held and can be found at www.sharedbook.com.

SOURCE AcademicPub