Baker & Taylor Signs Deals with Three Major University Presses

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker & Taylor Inc., the world's largest distributor of physical and digital books and entertainment products, today announced it has signed agreements to provide print-on-demand services – via its TextStream Digital Print Service unit – to Fordham University Press, University of North Carolina Press and Penn State Press.

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"Three highly regarded university presses have put their trust – and the hard work of their scholarly authors – in the hands of Baker & Taylor's TextStream, which is becoming the premier provider of print services for the academic market," said David Cully, President of Retail Markets and Executive Vice President of Merchandising/Digital Media Services for Baker & Taylor. "TextStream supports the university press community by delivering books on-demand, while academic publishers reduce their inventory carrying costs and the associated risk of product obsolescence."

The agreements with Fordham University Press, University of North Carolina Press and Penn State Press represent Baker & Taylor's latest success in expanding TextStream's presence in the publishing community. TextStream provides publishers with a full range of print-on-demand/short-run digital printing services with a wide variety of formats and other options. TextStream's flexibility and industry-leading customer reach make it especially advantageous to university presses by providing product to specialized audiences and academic libraries on an as needed basis.

"We are pleased to partner with Baker & Taylor to help us fulfill our mission of informing and educating the audiences we serve," said Fredric W. Nachbaur, Director of Fordham University Press. "We chose TextStream because of Baker & Taylor's reach and expertise within the academic library market."

By contracting with TextStream, the three university presses will have access to Baker & Taylor's wholesale distribution network of more than 44,000 retail and library customers worldwide.

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 Fordham University Press (www.fordhampress.com)

Fordham University Press was established in 1907 not only to represent and uphold the values and traditions of the University itself, but also to further those values and traditions through the dissemination of scholarly research and ideas. The press publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences, with an emphasis on the fields of anthropology, philosophy, theology, history, classics, communications, economics, sociology, business, political science and law, as well as literature and the fine arts. Additionally, the press publishes books focusing on the metropolitan New York region and books of interest to the general public.

About University of North Carolina Press (http://uncpress.unc.edu/)

For more than 80 years, the University of North Carolina Press has earned national and international recognition for quality books. In 1922, on the campus of the nation's oldest state university, 13 distinguished educators and civic leaders met to charter a publishing house. Their creation, the University of North Carolina Press, was the first university press in the South and one of the first in the nation.

About Penn State Press (www.psupress.org)

As the publishing arm of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, Penn State University Press is dedicated to serving the University community, the citizens of Pennsylvania, and scholars worldwide by publishing books and journals of the highest quality. The Press promotes the advance of scholarship by disseminating knowledge – new information, interpretations, methods of analysis – with an emphasis on core fields of the humanities and social sciences.

SOURCE Baker & Taylor, Inc.