(Fwd) Bartleby.com Unveils Web's Premier Reference Library

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Date sent:              Tue, 21 Mar 2000 12:04:05 -0500
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From:                   Megan Schade <megan at BARTLEBY-INC.COM>
Subject:                Bartleby.com Unveils Web's Premier Reference Library
To:                     DIGLIB at INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA

Bartleby.com Unveils Web's Premier Reference Library

Internet Publisher Combines Most Comprehensive Modern Reference Collection
With Best Classic Reference Works
NEW YORK, March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Bartleby.com (http://www.bartleby.com),
the first name in Internet publishing of reference, verse and classic
literature, today unveiled the Internet's premier reference web site,
offering free, searchable access to the world's most complete family of
online reference works. The site provides web-based access to such
world-class works as the Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, published by
Columbia University Press and The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition; Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third
Edition; Simpson's Contemporary Quotations; and The American Heritage® Book
of English Usage, published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

When combined with the web site's existing reference works, including
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Strunk's Elements of Style, Fowler's the
King's English, Second Edition, Emily Post's Etiquette, the Cambridge
History of English & American Literature and Fannie Farmer's Cookbook,
today's announcement establishes Bartleby.com as the most comprehensive
public web reference site. Bartleby.com published 200,000 full-text
searchable pages of reference, verse and classic literature-all accessible
24 hours per day, at no charge.

Bartleby.com also unveiled a complete web site redesign. With a new user
interface, Bartleby.com provides fast and accurate access to a vast array of
information, including material not available anywhere else-in print or on
the web. Visitors to Bartleby.com can access informative summaries of each
book, as well as concise biographies, complete with pictures, of each author
featured in the online library. Enhanced navigational tools and extensive
cross-referencing between works make it easy for users to locate specific
passages and references. Also new is the ``Bartleby Weekly'' feature,
providing a weekly update of new content additions, and the Bartleby
Bookstore, linking e-commerce to the site by providing a convenient market
for users to purchase books and related materials.

``Bartleby.com makes publishing history today,'' said Steven van Leeuwen,
publisher and founder of Bartleby.com. ``As the only publisher combining the
best of both contemporary and classic reference works, we have created the
most comprehensive public reference library ever published on the web-a
collection that will grow massively in the coming months.''

``Bartleby.com has designed an impressive web site that allows users to
easily access, search and categorize an extensive collection of classic
literature, reference and nonfiction material. Every knowledge-seeking
person should visit this site,'' said John McCormick of SECTORBASE.com, a
market research firm that caters primarily to institutional investors.

New Bartleby.com Reference Works

Columbia Encyclopedia

With its previous edition described by Scientific American as ``without peer
in the English language,'' and heralded by the New York Times Book Review as
``the standard of excellence as a guide to essential facts,'' the Columbia
Encyclopedia has always been the bar by which other reference works are
judged. Now, with Bartleby.com's publication of the new Sixth Edition, it is
also the most up-to-date encyclopedia available anywhere. With over 50,000
article entries, 40,000 bibliographic citations, and over 80,000
cross-reference entries, it is also one of the most comprehensive
encyclopedias available. All of these articles are fully searchable,
allowing students and readers of all kinds to locate specific information in
seconds.

``Bartleby.com is an outstanding partner for bringing the Columbia
Encyclopedia to the Internet,'' said Clare Wellnitz, Director of Subsidiary
Rights for Columbia University Press. ``With 24-hour, free online access to
the complete, unabridged encyclopedia, Bartleby.com delivers an invaluable
service for any student, researcher or family looking for fast and easy
access to essential and interesting facts.''

Other New Reference Works

Bartleby.com also released The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English
Language, Third Edition, filled with over 350,000 entries and meanings-more
than 16,000 of them new. Word definitions are further enhanced by over
34,000 examples of use, more than 500 usage notes and a newly revised
Appendix of Indo-European roots. Called by Amazon.com ``the chosen reference
of editors,'' The American Heritage® Dictionary ``is more than a mere tool
of the trade-it's a luxurious linguistic experience.'' The Usage Panel, a
group of over 170 editors, writers and public speakers, contributed its
opinions on usage to The American Heritage® Dictionary.

Complementing the Columbia Encyclopedia and American Heritage® Dictionary
are Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, providing over 35,000 synonyms; Simpson's
Quotations, highlighting the great quotes from 1950-1988 and providing about
10,000 quotes from nearly 4000 sources; and The American Heritage® Book of
English Usage, the preeminent guide to the proper use of grammar, style,
diction and word formation, and even e-mail etiquette.

David Jost, Vice President and Director of Electronic Reference Publishing
of the Trade and Reference Division of Houghton Mifflin Company, says
``Houghton Mifflin is proud to partner with Bartleby.com to bring these
essential reference works online as part of Bartleby.com's comprehensive
reference collection.''

Practical Details

The site is live today, at www.bartleby.com. All reference materials are
available 24-hours/day at no charge.

About Bartleby.com

Headquartered in New York City, Bartleby.com began publishing on the web in
1994. Now a leading innovator in the field of electronic publishing,
Bartleby.com has been widely cited as one of the best reference sites on the
web, having published among other works, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations,
Strunk's Elements of Style and six classic poetry anthologies, including the
Oxford Book of English Verse. Post's Etiquette, which the company added to
its site in December 1999, enables readers to jump from over 1,500
alphabetic subject entries to the most relevant of the 2,600 paragraphs in
the book. Most recently, Bartleby.com published the Cambridge History of
English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes,
considered a landmark of English and American letters.

Named after the humble character of Melville's classic Bartleby, the
Scrivener, Bartleby.com provides millions of students, educators and the
intellectually curious with unparalleled access to classics and reference
books online. Bartleby.com began as a personal research experiment in 1993
and within one year published its first classic book on the web, Whitman's
Leaves of Grass. Since then, Bartleby.com's ever-expanding list of renowned
classics makes it the preeminent electronic publishing enterprise on the
web.


    CONTACT:  Megan Schade of Bartleby.com, 646-435-6176, or
              megan at bartleby-inc.com; or Tish Wagner of Bairey & Bedford
              Public Relations, 770-725-0585, or Tish at b2pr.com, for
              Bartleby.com


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