New BiblioBoard App for the iPad Revolutionizes Worldwide Access to Historical Books

CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BiblioLabs today unveiled BiblioBoard, a free iPad^® App that brings thousands of curated historical primary source materials to consumers' fingertips worldwide. Download BiblioBoard for free now in the App Store(SM).

BiblioBoard was created by the founders of BookSurge, which revolutionized the publishing industry in the early 2000s by offering global software infrastructure for print on demand and publishing services. The same team founded BiblioLabs after BookSurge, later rebranded as CreateSpace, was acquired by Amazon.com. This innovative team has yet again developed groundbreaking publishing technology and a unique user experience. With BiblioBoard, they are changing the way the world accesses, buys and discovers content, including books, images and documents, through a multimedia user experience set in a digital ecosystem.

"BiblioBoard provides a unified ecosystem to share and access content in a way that has never before been possible," said Mitchell Davis, Chief Business Officer of BiblioLabs. "For decades, organizations around the globe have been digitally scanning historical artifacts such as books, images and documents. However, these primary source documents were contained in digital silos, without a cohesive way to search across multiple collections or to unify them by topic. BiblioBoard bridges these silos, and lets us share our collective history worldwide."

BiblioBoard provides access to historical Anthologies that explore places, events, people and themes from across the centuries. Each Anthology is a curated multimedia experience about a topic that on average includes 75 historical books with numerous other historical images, articles and documents, accompanied by expert commentary.

Today, more than 70 Anthologies are available on BiblioBoard covering a multitude of topics, including literature, sports, religion and war. Users can even find more niche anthologies such as Fairy Tales: Favorite Tales From Around the Globe, The Olympic Games: A Historical Collection, American Slave Narratives: A Historical Collection and Myths and Legends: Stories from Around the World. New Anthologies will be released daily. For a complete listing of Anthologies available on BiblioBoard, visit www.BiblioBoard.com/curation/anthologies, or simply download the free BiblioBoard App and browse all the Anthologies.

With Anthologies ranging in price from $9.99 to $15.99, users can purchase an entire curated universe of historical artifacts for the price of a single paperback book. In addition, three anthologies created from the British Library's 19^th Century Historical Collection are being offered for free with every BiblioBoard download, including Trains: The History and Pleasures of Railroading, High Seas Adventures: A Historical Collection of Maritime Life and Castles: An Anthology.  

"The value proposition of an Anthology is unprecedented – instead of buying one paperback book, you can own an entire collection of books, images and documents expertly selected by a curator," said Davis. "The interface is easy to use and encourages serendipitous historical discovery, allowing users to easily find interesting content throughout BiblioBoard. The quantity of content available in each Anthology, coupled with the high resolution viewing quality of each artifact, sets an unparalleled bar for the publishing community."

With BiblioBoard, users can:

• View all content in high resolution and easily zoom in to see the smallest details. It gives you the feeling of holding the original artifact in your hands.
• Preview and enjoy free books and images in every Anthology. If you like what you see, purchase at anytime to gain full access to the entire Anthology.
• Collaborate and share your finds with other like-minded enthusiasts.

"We are currently partnering with numerous third-party organizations to develop Anthologies from their digital collections," said Davis. "The British Library has a series of available Anthologies created from their 19^th Century Historical Collection, including three that are free for all BiblioBoard users. Other partners range from national libraries, museums, historical societies and universities, to individual experts and enthusiasts. By opening BiblioBoard to third parties, we make the possibility of unique, new Anthologies limitless."  

Organizations interested in making their own Anthology for BiblioBoard can learn more at www.Nuvique.com, a free platform for creating multimedia BiblioBoard Anthologies.

BiblioLabs' internal expert curators develop Anthologies under the imprint BiblioLife. $1 from every BiblioLife Anthology sold will be donated to the Internet Archive to help in their ongoing effort to digitize and preserve the world's history.

"We plan to extend BiblioBoard's accessibility from the iPad to include any Web browser later this year and are currently considering the next platform (Kindle Fire^®, Nook^®, Nexus 7^® or Surface^®) on which to develop," said Davis. "The feedback we've received from users and third-party organizations has been overwhelming – BiblioBoard is filling a much-needed void in the publishing industry by allowing third parties to create robust multimedia digital products without any associated costs for the organization."

About BiblioLabs, LLC  
BiblioBoard was created by BiblioLabs, LLC a hybrid software-media company that created a multimedia authoring tool which enables curators and subject matter experts to discover, enhance and create new works from the wealth of licensed, and public domain materials available within their core database. BiblioBoard is a free iPad^® app containing historical Anthologies that explore places, events, people and themes from across the centuries. BiblioLabs works with leading organizations around the world to create widespread commercial access to rare and interesting materials in an innovative way. To learn more about BiblioBoard, visit www.BiblioBoard.com. 

SOURCE BiblioLabs, LLC