Founded in August 1998, netLibrary is the world's premier provider of electronic books (eBooks) to the institutional library market. The term eBook applies to published materials,such as research and reference books, and scholarly monographs, that have been converted into digital format for electronic distribution to academic, public, corporate, government and K-12 libraries. By combining the time-honored traditions of the library system with electronic publishing, netLibrary offers an easy-to-use information and retrieval system for accessing the full text of reference, scholarly, and professional books.

The netLibrary system works as follows. A library purchases a collection of titles just as they would print titles. netLibrary handles all of the technology and hosts the eBooks from its servers. The library determines the authentication strategy. As with print books, only one patron at a time may access each copy of an eBook and the library. The Library Resource Center/Extranet sets the length of checkout time for each eBook through its secure Library Resource Center/Extranet. Support for library customers includes The Library Resource Center which provides information on usage helpful for collection development; TitleSelect™, an online catalog and order processing system; and the eBook Tool Kit, an online marketing resource.

For online searching, netLibrary chose the dtSearch Text Retrieval Engine. "netLibrary uses dtSearch to power online searching within an individual eBook," says Justin Littman of netLibrary's Research & Technology Strategy Group. "Once a patron has entered an eBook, dtSearch is used to assist the patron in quickly identifying the most relevant passages."

"netLibrary chose dtSearch because it is fast, flexible, and has a rich set of features," said Mr. Littman. "The COM interface allowed for rapid prototyping, while the C++ interface offered the ability to build a highly customized application. Overall, dtSearch provides a toolkit which is both comprehensive and easy to use."

Mr. Littman also praised dtSearch Corp.'s technical support during netLibrary's development process. "One of the best aspects of using dtSearch is the technical support. Whether the question was easy or complicated, we always received prompt, and most importantly, accurate, responses."

netLibrary helps academic, public, corporate and special libraries create a richer, more productive learning environment for their patrons. netLibrary's eBooks are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week - from any location in the world, with additional features such as a dictionary, index, and easy keyword searchability. To visit netLibrary, including browsing its public reading room, please go to www.netlibrary.com.