EBSCO Information Services Donates Digital Content to Worldreader to Support Literacy in the Developing World
~ Readers Can Easily Access the Books through Worldreader Mobile ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — December 10, 2015 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and Worldreader, a global non-profit dedicated to improving literacy in the developing world through digital books, are partnering to bring non-fiction content to children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa and India. The proprietary reference articles donated by EBSCO will help Worldreader as it aims to reach 10 million readers with its digital library by the end of 2015.

The reference articles will be available via Worldreader Mobile, allowing readers to access the information through the cell phones they already have. EBSCO worked with Worldreader to select learning resources that were easy to read on a cell phone and included subjects Worldreader knows readers are interested in such as science, literature, poetry, biographies, history, philosophy, math and more.

“Reading is transformative; especially in the developing world where access to books is often limited or non-existent,” says Danielle Zacarias, Director of Content, Worldreader. “This partnership with EBSCO enables Worldreader to provide a variety of non-fiction reference articles filled with real-world knowledge about science, history, math, and subjects that will educate, inspire, and empower growth and hope in the parts of the world that need it most.”

EBSCO Executive Vice President of Product Management and Customer Satisfaction Stratton Lloyd says that both EBSCO and Worldreader share a commitment to serving people’s information needs. “EBSCO is a mission-driven organization dedicated to improving information access globally. We have a long history of partnering with global organizations, such as Worldreader, and we are honored to join them in this partnership in hopes that it can help empower individuals throughout sub-Saharan Africa and India.”

Donated content covers a variety of topics. For example, the ELL Reference Center™ collection of content is designed to give students and those who are new to the English language information on science, history, civics, life skills, mathematics and literature. Our World and Country Profiles collections feature content that explores the capital cities of the world, including history, culture, economy and culture of each city, and provide country profiles that bring both dimension and context to the study of history, government and current events. The Solar System collection features essential coverage of all aspects of the Earth’s solar system, from details on each of the major planets and satellites, interplanetary phenomena and cosmological context. Research Starters Business™ offers comprehensive summaries on discipline-specific topics relevant to the contemporary business world.

About Worldreader
Worldreader is a global non-profit that uses technology to bring digital books to every child and her family, so they can improve their lives. In its first five years, Worldreader has reached 2.6 million readers in 50 countries with a digital library of 27,000 local and international e-books via e-readers and mobile phones, and plans to reach 15 million readers by 2018. Founded in 2010 by former Microsoft and Amazon executive David Risher, and former Marketing Director at Barcelona’s ESADE Business School Colin McElwee, Worldreader works with device manufacturers, local and international publishers, governments, education officials, and local communities to bring books to all. Readers anywhere and on any connected mobile device can read by visiting: read.worldreader.org. For more information on Worldreader, please visit http://www.worldreader.org.
About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 8,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 750,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com

12/9/2015
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions Welcomes Nick Clemens to the Role of Development Support

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, is happy to welcome Nick Clemens to ByWater's talented development team. Nick will join the ByWater team in assisting partners with and developing new features for their Koha Open Source ILS.

Nick received his M.L.I.S. from the Palmer School and his B.A. from NYU. He has served in many roles in libraries in Vermont, coordinating a four library system within a 59 library consortium and providing support to the consortium at large. At home he is surrounded by his ever growing collection of books, his family, and one too many cats.

Nick commented on his decision to join ByWater Solutions:

"Having been a ByWater partner for several years I am ecstatic to join the team and return the excellent enthusiastic service that I have received to other partners."

Nicole Engard, VP of Community Outreach, commented:

"In all my years of working with Koha I have never managed a more enthusiastic employee. Nick has hit the ground running and his knowledge of Koha from both the company and the partner side is a great asset to us all."

About ByWater Solutions:

With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of the enterprise class open source library system, Koha. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: http://www.bywatersolutions.com

About Koha:

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–HTML5, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org