MetaPress, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc., has signed a multi-year contract with BertelsmannSpringer for development and operation of a totally redesigned SpringerLink Online Content delivery system.

BertelsmannSpringer's value to the corporate, academic and medical research community is reflected by the exceptionally high use-data collected on their current site www.springerlink.com. MetaPress has offered solutions to SpringerLink that will help with the anticipated growth and use of their content. These solutions include optimized, redundant routing of user traffic across a scalable bandwidth from five worldwide network providers.

"I am extremely honored that Springer has chosen to partner with MetaPress for the re-development of SpringerLink," said Mark Williams, vice president and general manager of PP&F/MetaPress. "Springer is an innovative publishing company that has pioneered many exciting developments in electronic delivery of scholarly information. Our philosophies and goals are well matched. We are committed to providing a new generation of intuitive and reliable services to Springer's customers."

Goals of this project are to enhance the experience of the information user and to provide better evaluation of use and market expectations to Springer. Springer will be able to provide the most up-to-date features and services by measuring and managing patterns of online content usage deployed by MetaPress. The new SpringerLink system will offer refined alerting, searching and linking options that move the user to content contributions with less navigation. SpringerLink functionality will integrate across approximately 500 journals, book series, lecture notes and subject specific libraries.

"MetaPress is confident that the deployment of Springer's content through the system designed and operated by MetaPress will bring great exposure to our capabilities throughout the STM Publishing community," said Williams.

Rüdiger Gebauer, president and CEO of Springer, emphasized the advantage of the partnership. "After more than seven years of developing these services ourselves, we will now be cooperating with a technologically experienced and customer-focused partner to guarantee a high level of innovation and availability," he said. Gebauer added that marketing, sales and production activities for SpringerLink content would remain part of the publishing company's core competence.

MetaPress, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc., began operation in 2000. MetaPress offers publishers comprehensive solutions to their Web-publishing needs. The MetaPress Web site (www.metapress.com) is a full-featured research tool that is open to the public. The service provides access to articles from thousands of journals, newsletters and other professional and academic publications. Services offered by MetaPress include content management, Web hosting, Web site development and e-commerce support.

EBSCO Industries, Inc. is a global corporation with sales, service and manufacturing subsidiaries at work in 19 countries around the world. EBSCO's business interests include information management services, print and online journal subscription services, online research databases, real estate development, commercial printing and more. EBSCO, an acronym for Elton B. Stephens Company, is based in Birmingham, Alabama and employs 4,000 people around the world. Additional information on EBSCO Industries is available from www.ebscoind.com.

Release Date: June 9, 2003