Pilot test results show students prefer Ingram Digital’s platform

La Vergne, TN -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/21/2009 -- Northwest Missouri State University has announced its selection of the VitalSource Bookshelf® e-textbook platform as its format of choice for e-textbook delivery for students.

The university chose the VitalSource Bookshelf platform after conducting pilot tests of the leading formats among some 500 students. VitalSource, the leading interactive e-book platform for education, is an offering of Ingram DigitalSM, an Ingram content company focused on solutions for digital content management, distribution and promotion.

One of the unique aspects of attending Northwest is that all students receive a laptop computer from the University to use during the school year. Beginning in the fall 2009 semester, those computers will come preloaded with VitalSource Bookshelf.

"Since we became the nation's first public university to implement an electronic campus in 1987, we have dedicated ourselves to using technology to enhance education," said Dr. Dean L. Hubbard, President. "Now, by using Vitalsource Bookshelf as our primary method of e-textbook delivery, we are taking another step as a technology leader."

"The e-textbook program at Northwest Missouri State will be the model for other schools considering an all-digital-curriculum," said William Chesser, vice president and general manager for Ingram Digital Education Solutions. "We are delighted to be powering this endeavor and to work alongside such a forward-thinking institution."

VitalSource e-textbooks can be accessed from a PC anytime, anywhere. Delivered through Bookshelf, VitalSource's leading edge e-book reader, they can be highlighted and annotated and searched. In addition, Bookshelf stores, indexes and displays VitalSource e-textbooks and functions as a virtual meeting place for readers to trade notes, tips and techniques.

Northwest Missouri State University's selection of VitalSource Bookshelf came after pilot tests of Ingram Digital's format was compared with two other formats. The pilot included over 500 students in seven courses. Students were asked to keep track of the number of hours they spent reading texts, how they used their texts, the ease of using the e-textbook and its interactive features, and their perceptions of e-textbooks versus print textbooks. The University surveyed students several times and considered both qualitative and quantitative results when making their decision.

Among the survey's findings:

• 80 percent of students surveyed said it was more convenient and efficient to acquire, transport and integrate information from other learning resources using an e-textbook.
• Students surveyed cited the ability to search their entire collection of e-textbooks for information; the ability to highlight their e-textbooks; and the ability to conduct keyword searches on content notes and shared notes as the most appealing features of e-textbooks.
• 78 percent of students surveyed said they liked the idea of e-textbooks and would use them for at least some courses.

"In selecting the University's primary e-textbook delivery format, it stood out that students using the VitalSource application had a much better experience and formed much more positive opinions of e-textbooks than students who used the other applications we tested," explained Paul Klute, Assistant to the President.

ABOUT NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
Northwest Missouri State University is a four-year regional university offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Accreditations include the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. Northwest's 2008-09 enrollment was 7,000. Undergraduate students can select from more than 100 majors, 70 minors and 19 pre-professional degree programs. There are 42 graduate degree offerings, two specialist and five certificate programs. The University has implemented quality management throughout its system in its "Culture of Quality." For these efforts, Northwest has won four consecutive Missouri Quality Awards (1997, 2001, 2005 and 2008). Northwest is the first public university in the nation to establish an electronic campus (1987).

ABOUT INGRAM DIGITAL
Ingram Digital is an Ingram content company. The Ingram content companies provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry, and immediate access to the largest selection of books and book-related products in the industry. The content companies are Ingram Digital, Lightning Source Inc., Ingram Book Company, Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Coutts Information Services, Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., and Tennessee Book Company LLC. For more information about Ingram Digital, visit the website http://www.ingramdigital.com

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VitalSource’s e-book platform will enhance MBS’s Universal Digital Textbooks Program with cutting-edge search, note-taking and note-sharing functionalities

Raleigh, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/22/2007 -- VitalSource Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of digital book solutions, today announced that its state-of-the art e-book format, VitalBook (*.vbk), has been selected as the preferred platform by MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc., the largest used textbook wholesaler, bookstore systems provider and distance learning materials distribution service in the United States.

VitalBook is an XML-based format containing proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology. VitalSource-powered educational titles enable students to activate content by highlighting, taking notes and sharing those notes with fellow readers. All of these actions are performed in VitalSource Bookshelf, a free, PC and MAC-compatible companion application.

"By combining the publishing technology leadership of VitalSource with the college store technology leadership you have come to expect from MBS, this partnership demonstrates that MBS is committed to providing additional products and services that ensure that the college store, as well as the innovators in online education, will continue to play a major role in the distribution of course materials, regardless of the format," said Dennis Flanagan, CEO of MBS Direct.

E-books published in the VitalBook format will be used to enhance the MBS Universal Digital Textbooks Program. Launched in 2005, the initiative aims to meet the growing demand for educational content delivered in interactive, digital formats. Additionally, the MBS Universal Digital Textbooks Program packages textbook products in a variety of ways, ranging from individual chapters to bundled libraries. Digital textbooks published using VitalSource technology will be available for purchase from an extensive network of traditional college bookstores and nontraditional providers of education nationwide.

VitalSource e-books are delivered on VitalSource Bookshelf, a powerful e-book reader and platform for content aggregation and organization. Ideal for today's students, Bookshelf's collaboration functionality allows users to highlight digital titles using virtual markers, and then elect to share highlights and notes with others. Students may employ shared notes to help others study, ask questions of classmates and instructors, or divide work among members of a study group.

"Having been selected by MBS is a true testament to the value of our technology as a product differentiator," commented Frank Daniels III, president and CEO of VitalSource. "By partnering with MBS, we have significantly expanded our sales channels and further strengthened our position as the preferred provider of digital publishing technology to educational content distributors."

About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.
VitalSource, an Ingram Digital Group company with headquarters in Raleigh, NC, is a leading provider of technology solutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers, distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other content directly to users' computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format under a variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-label bundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery to students and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. In 2007, VitalSource commemorated the billionth book distributed in the VitalBook format. For more information visit www.vitalsource.com

About Ingram Digital Group
Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group along with its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides a full-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies - Ingram Digital Group, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. - provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com

About MBS Textbook Exchange
Since its inception in 1973, MBS Textbook Exchange has become the industry leader in wholesale textbook distribution, textbook management systems and Digital Textbook solutions. MBS serves more than 4,000 academic institutions nationwide, processing more than 12 million used and new textbooks annually. MBS has earned a peerless reputation for excellence and innovation and is committed to bringing its partners and customers the absolute best in service, support and savings.

Mariana McCulley
+1 919-459-6455

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Digital book applications developer strengthens position as preferred partner to content providers

Raleigh, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/05/2007 -- VitalSource Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of digital book solutions, today announced that it has added OPS 2.0 (*.epub) to its content submission guidelines. OPS 2.0 was collaboratively developed by members of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the international trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry, to streamline the delivery of content to the marketplace. OPS 2.0 was officially released by IDPF on May 16.

One of the most successful application developers in the digital publishing industry, VitalSource, an Ingram Digital Group Company, has been a longtime supporter of IDPF's mission to improve the flow of content through sales and distribution channels. A versatile business model has enabled the company to establish itself as a much sought after strategic partner for enterprises operating at various levels of the digital publishing supply chain. By embracing IDPF's OPS 2.0 standard, VitalSource aims to simplify the content submission process for customers and continue adding value to its business exchanges.

"We fully support the release of OPS 2.0 and are excited at the positive response it has received from the industry," said Frank Daniels III, CEO of VitalSource. "As active members of IDPF, we will continue to collaborate with the organization in its efforts to promote a wide adoption of the *.epub open e-book standard."

As a set of common guidelines for digital content delivery, OPS 2.0 has the potential to boost the number of e-book titles available from VitalSource. The OPS standard reduces the need for publishers to convert content to multiple standards in order to match the requirements of different technology partners. Ultimately, OPS 2.0 offers publishers, authors and educational institutions greater flexibility to pursue digital strategies.

"The digital publishing industry has long suffered from the lack of a vendor agnostic standard," commented Daniels. "We are confident that OPS 2.0 will contribute to drive the success of e-books in the marketplace."

About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.
Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, VitalSource is a leading provider of technology solutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers, distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other content directly to users' computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format under a variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-label bundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery to students and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. In 2007, VitalSource commemorated the billionth book distributed in the VitalBook format. VitalSource is an Ingram Digital Group company. For more information visit www.vitalsource.com

About Ingram Digital Group
Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group along with its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides a full-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies - including Ingram Digital, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. - provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com

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Collaborative Digital Note Sharing Enables New Generation of Online Learning Networks for Teachers and Students

Raleigh, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/15/2007 -- VitalSource Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of digital book solutions, today released the most advanced digital book software in the industry with new, interactive features including the ability for users to collaborate by sharing notes and highlights.

"Bookshelf was created to not only deliver e-books, but also activate content with cutting-edge digital technology," said Frank Daniels III, CEO of VitalSource and a pioneer in digital publishing. "Bookshelf 4.5 is the first learning tool to take advantage of the interactive and collaborative potential of e-books. The technology is somewhat analogous to social networks, like MySpace, only the communities and interaction take place around books. Readers can form ad hoc book clubs with anyone else who owns the same e-book. This is a whole new generation of digital book technology joining the best of internet with e-books."

VitalSource's comprehensive upgrade to its flagship product, Bookshelf 4.5, is free and available for download from vitalsource.com. Books may be purchased from VitalSource's online store, from select college bookstores and through the e-commerce websites of VitalSource's publishing partners. E-books are downloaded to Bookshelf where they are automatically indexed and stored locally. Like music purchased from an online store, once they have been downloaded, VitalSource e-books do not require an online connection for readers to access them.

Previous editions of Bookshelf already allowed readers to highlight and annotate e-books, features that set the technology apart from competing platforms as they allowed readers to interact with e-books in the same manner as they would with printed textbooks, reference materials and other publications. Advanced search capabilities were also part of earlier editions of Bookshelf, allowing users to conduct queries on individual titles or their entire e-library.

Bookshelf 4.5 takes a leap into the Web 2.0 era by letting readers create social networks around e-books. Users can highlight digital titles using virtual markers, then elect to share highlights and notes with other individuals who can subscribe to that content, similar to a blog's RSS feed. Shared notes and highlights are automatically updated when Bookshelf detects an Internet connection.

Bookshelf users may employ shared notes to help one other study, to ask other readers questions, or to divide work among members of a study group. Teachers may use this powerful feature to focus attention on the most salient portions of the text or to insert self-test or discussion questions.

Bookshelf was designed to support VitalSource's proprietary digital format, VitalBook (*.vbk), an xml-based platform that provides extensive data-tagging, and robust digital rights management (DRM) as well as efficient storage and delivery of large data files. In addition, Bookshelf 4.5 is a cutting-edge MathML reader, making it the ideal technology for reading advanced math and science titles. By allowing mathematical equations to be published as text and not as an image, Bookshelf 4.5 makes mathematical content fully searchable.

"Often the industry will focus on e-book reading devices as the key obstacle to wider adoption of digital publications," commented Daniels. "VitalSource pursues a different approach, developing software technologies that make for a richer, more intuitive user experience on a variety of existing platforms."

Daniels is once again taking a leadership role in the transition of conventional print media into the digital age. In the early 1990s, while acting as publisher of the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, Daniels spearheaded the creation of NandO, one of the first Internet newspaper sites. NandO is widely recognized as a model for later news websites.

For more information on Bookshelf 4.5, please visit: http://www.vitalsource.com/index/bookshelf

About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.

Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, VitalSource is a leading provider of technology solutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers, distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other content directly to users' computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format under a variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-label bundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery to students and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. In 2007, VitalSource commemorated the billionth book distributed in the VitalBook format. VitalSource is an Ingram Digital Group company. For more information visit www.vitalsource.com

About Ingram Digital Group

Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group along with its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides a full-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies - including Ingram Digital, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. - provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com

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VitalSource Commemorates Billionth e-Book Distributed in VitalBook Format

Raleigh, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/11/2007 -- VitalSource Technologies, Inc., developer of the most advanced e-book software, the VitalSource BookShelf, today announced that one billion e-books have been distributed using the company's pioneering format, VitalBook. This milestone represents the largest number of commercial e-book titles distributed in a single format.

Designed to significantly enhance the experience of using books in digital environments, VitalBooks offer a unique platform for organizations looking to enrich content with advanced search, cross-referencing, note taking and now note sharing capabilities. VitalBooks are easily managed, sorted and searched through a robust, user-friendly interface designed specifically to handle libraries of content. VitalBooks are equally well suited for the digitization of standard text and long, graphic-intensive titles, making it an ideal fit for textbook publishers.

"No other e-book format has achieved such widespread adoption," commented Frank Daniels III, president and CEO of VitalSource. "This milestone further validates our company's business model, built not only on the commitment to develop advanced digital publishing technologies, but also on the ability to collaborate with companies with distinct needs to deliver the best solution for their businesses."

Founded in 1994, VitalSource has partnered with publishers, education institutions, school districts and computer manufacturers to enable these organizations to deploy digital publishing strategies tailored to their markets. Publishers, retailers and educational institutions have been able to commercialize e-books in the VitalBook format employing a variety of marketing strategies. Examples include the distribution of single titles, individual chapters and collections of content to existing wholesale, reseller and end-user markets.

"VitalSource has enabled a major computer manufacturer to enhance their offering to colleges and universities with a library of some of the most important scientific and literary works in the public domain," said Daniels. "In addition to a first-class computer, college students can now benefit from the access to an interactive snapshot of the world of ideas that includes the works of Aristotle and Shakespeare," he added.

Another reason why the VitalBook format has enjoyed wide acceptance among such diverse constituencies as publishers, academic institutions and retailers, is the platform's approach to digital rights management (DRM). VitalBook offers publishers robust DRM protection while ensuring that end-users benefit from the collaboration fostered in digital environments. In short, VitalSource's technology provides copyright protection without burdening the end-user.

For more information on VitalBooks please visit: http://www.vitalsource.com/index/vbk

About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.

Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, VitalSource is a leading provider of technology solutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers, distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other content directly to users' computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format under a variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-label bundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery to students and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. VitalSource is a division of Ingram Digital Group. For more information visit www.vitalsource.com

About Ingram Digital Group

Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group along with its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides a full-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies - including Ingram Digital, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. - provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm