Link from MyIdentifiers to Smith will introduce authors to essential support

May 2, 2013 (New Providence, NJ) – ProQuest affiliate Bowker® is expanding resources available to authors and small publishers on its MyIdentifiers.com website by teaming with Smith Publicity, widely recognized as one of the industry’s top book publicity agencies. Now, MyIdentifiers.com will include a link to Smith’s website where authors and publishers can take the first steps in exploring public relations programs that can effectively support their publishing efforts. The cooperation with Smith is part of Bowker’s larger program to help MyIdentifiers users succeed by connecting them to trusted providers of a range of essential services.

“We continue to see enormous growth in self-publishing,” said Beat Barblan, director of Bowker® Identifier Services. “These authors have a message or a story to share. They are interested in finding and partnering with trusted resources that will help propel their books to success. Bowker can help by identifying high-quality support and making it easy for them to connect. Smith Publicity is a great addition to this program.”

Founded in 1997, Smith Publicity has worked with more than 1,500 authors and publishers, promoting books from every genre. The firm is renowned for its ability to provide personal service. Its staff of professionals partner with authors to share expertise and develop plans that fit the author’s goals and enable the book to reach its full potential – whether it’s targeted publicity for a niche audience or a six-month international media campaign. Smith’s track record of success is legendary: its clients have appeared on virtually every major television and radio show and featured in top print and online publications throughout the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

“We work with authors of every walk of life, helping them to realize what are often deeply personal goals for success,” said Sandra Poirier-Diaz, president of Smith Publicity. “The opportunity to support the users of MyIdentifiers is truly exciting for us. We’re eager to meet these authors, spread the word about their books to help them spark sales.”

MyIdentifiers, part of Bowker® Identifier Services, provides authors and publishers with the products and services that allow their books to be discovered. As the United States’ official ISBN agency, it is the first stop in publishing and selling books and now includes a growing range of tools to help expand the audiences for authors’ works.

About Smith Publicity

Since 1997, Smith Publicity has promoted more than 1,500 authors/publishers representing books from every genre from first time, self-published projects to The New York Times best selling titles. The company’s book marketing and promotion services include outreach to television, radio, magazine, newspaper and online media. Smith Publicity excels at developing creative and personalized book promotion plans to help clients create awareness about their projects and brands. Smith Publicity is headquartered in Cherry Hill, NJ, with additional offices in Toronto and London.

About Bowker® (www.bowker.com)

Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

iPhone/iPad app connects buyers, librarians and sellers to metadata, retail prices and purchase ability anywhere, anytime

April 10, 2013 (New Providence, NJ) — ProQuest affiliate Bowker® is introducing a free mobile app that streamlines the search for books by consumers, librarians and booksellers. Using Bowker’s new Bookwire™ app, iPhone™ or iPad™ users can scan the barcode of any book to receive a quick search result for that title and format, view a list of the lowest retail prices, and make a purchase through multiple e-retailers. For subscribers to Books In Print® or Resources for College Libraries™ (RCL), the Bookwire app offers an additional benefit, enabling subscribers to login to access detailed book information and add titles to selected lists from any location — whether it’s remote or in the library.

The Bookwire app provides a variety of options to connect to book information. Users can scan a barcode, enter an ISBN or search by title, author or publisher to review details. Then, they can complete a purchase or save the information for later use.

Subscribers to Books In Print® and RCL™ will be able to link to detailed metadata and add items to existing lists. Book buyers in a store, faculty office or at a trade show will be able to simply scan and save titles from Books In Print on the spot to their device. Collection weeding in libraries will happen right from the stacks, eliminating the need to cart books back to a desk for evaluation.

The Bookwire app is available in the iTunes Store.

About Bowker^® (www.bowker.com)
Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

Improved interface and access via ebrary update the classic collection development tool

April 10, 2013 (NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ and PALO ALTO, CA) — ProQuest affiliate Bowker, ProQuest e-book business ebrary and Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) uniting to improve the accessibility and utility of Resources for College Libraries (RCL), the popular collection development tool for academic libraries. Choice and Bowker, whose unique partnership created RCL, have launched a variety of enhancements including a mobile application for the web-based resource, which is used by academic libraries to identify core titles for scores of academic subject areas. Additionally, more than 13,000 RCL titles will now be available on the ebrary platform.

“The combination of Choice’s content and Bowker’s technological expertise have made RCL an essential and easy-to-use tool for academic collection development,” said Kevin Sayar, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, ProQuest Workflow Solutions. “Via the ebrary platform, we’re enabling RCL to directly enhance the research environment by streamlining access to essential titles.”

Originally launched in 2006, RCL is a suite of works based on the American Library Association’s classic reference work, Books for College Libraries (BCL).  As ebrary collections, universities, colleges, and other institutions can provide their users with anytime, anywhere access to RCL’s essential titles. RCL titles can be browsed by its broad range of subjects — traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum, business, computer science, education, engineering and health sciences – or by publisher. The titles are supported with ebrary’s popular features, such as free mobile apps for the iPad®, iPhone®, iPod touch® and Android™, along with InfoTools™, granular usage statistics, and sophisticated searching and navigation. Through ebrary, RCL titles will also be surfaced through the ProQuest® platform and the Summon® service, significantly enhancing its discovery. RCL titles can be purchased as a perpetual archive and enabled for patron-driven acquisition.

Via Bowker, the RCL interface has been updated with a simpler browse function, faster search results and improved mobile access through Bowker’s BookWire app, which enables subscribers to login to access book details and add titles to selected lists from any location. RCL also includes RSS feeds for new titles, dynamic facets to help refine search. Content includes the full text of Choice reviews and easy identifiers for Choice Outstanding Academic Titles.

Three Bowker subscription options include the traditional RCL collection, which allows libraries to discover and collect over 80,000 essential titles in 61 core subject areas; Resources for College Libraries™: Career Resources (CR), an essential list of 4,500 titles in 56 subject areas covering vocational, technical, and career programs for two-year and four-year undergraduate institutions; and, RCL Plus, which includes both RCL and CR products.

About Choice

More than 35,000 academic librarians, faculty, and key decision makers rely on Choice magazine and Choice Reviews Online for collection development and scholarly research. Choice, a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), reaches almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States as well as major academic and research libraries around the world. For more information, visit www.ala.org/acrl/choice.

About ACRL

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. It is dedicated to enhancing the ability of academic library and information professionals to serve the information needs of the higher education community and to improve learning, teaching, and research. ACRL is the largest division of the American Library Association (ALA). ACRL currently has a membership of approximately 12,600 members, accounting for nearly 20% of the total ALA membership. ACRL provides a broad range of professional services and programs for a diverse membership. For more information, visit http://www.ala.org/acrl.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)

ebrary helps customers acquire e-books strategically through a three step approach: Transition, Diversify and Streamline™.  The company believes that by challenging the e-book status quo, organizations can effectively serve the diverse and growing needs of researchers and maximize their budgets. Founded in 1999, long before e-books were popular, ebrary is a ProQuest business located in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Books & Consumers study sheds light on dynamics of U.S. and U.K. book markets

Full Year U.K. results to be presented at Books & Consumers Conference

March 20^th, London

March 18, 2013 (LONDON) — The rise in e-book reading in the U.S. and U.K. over the last three years has been a key driver in the market share gains of e-retailers, according to research being released this month by Bowker Market Research.  In the U.S., e-retailers accounted for 44 percent of book purchases by volume in 2012, up from 25 percent in 2010. In the U.K. the rise has been somewhat less dramatic but still significant, up from 25 percent in January-November 2010, to 38 percent in the same period in 2012.

 E-retailers market share increases come at the expense of chain booksellers in the U.S., where their market share has dropped from 32 percent to 19 percent of volume.  This sector has proved more resilient in the U.K., but even there the bookshop share as a whole fell from 43percent during January-November 2010 to 37 percent in the equivalent months in 2012.

 “It is clear that the e-book format has really come of age in the US,” said Jo Henry, Director of Bowker Market Research, a service of ProQuest affiliate Bowker.  “E-books’ market share has seen steady growth since January 2009, with steep rises after each Christmas.”

In November 2012, 28 percent of all book purchases in the U.S. were in e-book format — a dramatic rise from six percent in November 2010.  In the U.K., the e-book share of the market reached a peak of 13 percent in July 2012, at the height of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, but fell back to about nine percent in November 2012.

Full year data on the U.K. consumer book market – including the impact of e-books, the latest trends in e-reading devices, book discovery and purchase influences, as well as insights into the U.S. market, U.K. children’s reading habits and the role of bookshops – will be presented at Bowker’s Books & Consumers Conference being held on the morning of March 20^th at One Birdcage Walk, London SW1.  Seats can be booked via http://booksandconsumer2013.eventbrite.co.uk/ or by contacting  Jo.Henry@bowker.co.uk.

About Bowker^® (www.bowker.com)
Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

February 13, 2013 (NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ) — Bowker®, a ProQuest affiliate, is teaming with Vook to enrich the offerings available on Bowker’s acclaimed MyIdentifiers.com site. Now, in addition to accessing Bowker’s ISBN and metadata services on MyIdentifiers.com, authors will be able to purchase Vook’s ebook production and distribution solutions, all from one location. Vook’s distribution network includes major e-retailers Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.

“The self-publishing community is growing dramatically and we’re eager to support these authors with access to high-quality services,” said Beat Barblan, Director, Bowker Identifier Services. “We are continuously evolving MyIdentifiers.com to become a one-stop site where authors, as well as self and small publishers can easily find what they need. Teaming with Vook is another important step toward fulfilling that goal.”

With the ability to offer ebook production and distribution through Vook, Bowker has become a turn-key solution for authors who want to bring their books to market quickly. Leveraging Vook’s ebook production capabilities, Bowker is able to offer its customers easy access to services that can aid in the distribution and accounting for customers’ ebooks.

“Being able to add ebook creation and distribution to its list of essential offerings makes Bowker a truly innovative leader in solutions for authors and publishers,” said Matthew Cavnar, Vook Vice-President, Business Development. “We’re excited to help Bowker’s customers bring their work to fruition.”

About Bowker^® (www.bowker.com)
Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

About Vook

Founded in 2009, Vook has created an innovative technology platform that helps content holders to create great ebooks, add video and images, publish the ebooks to their own Web pages and to the major e-retailers, and track their sales. Vook provides a turnkey solution for content strategy, including editorial, marketing and distribution services and has worked with a range of partners, including The New York Times, NBC, Simon & Schuster, Google, American Express Publishing, and Newsweek Daily Beast. For more information, please visit http://vook.com or contact Allison@vook.com.

CreateSpace, Smashwords and Author Solutions dominate infrastructure landscape

October 24, 2012 (New Providence, NJ) – The number of self-published books produced annually in the U.S. has nearly tripled, growing 287 percent since 2006, and now tallies more than 235,000 print and “e” titles, according to a new analysis of data from Bowker® Books In Print and Bowker® Identifier Services. The research explores the dramatic U.S. growth of an area once relegated to the fringes of publishing. It finds that while production increases are occurring in both print and e-book formats, the latter is driving the greatest percentage gains. It also shows that while self-publishing may seem like a cottage industry, it is dominated by large firms that offer publishing services to individual authors.

“Self-publishing is now supported by a sophisticated and highly accessible support structure,” said Beat Barblan, Director of Identifier Services for Bowker, an affiliate of information powerhouse ProQuest. “It’s provided everyone who has a story to tell with a method for sharing it and leveled the playing field to an unprecedented degree. This is no longer just vanity presses at work – self-publishing is out of the dark corners and making its way into the mainstream. Notable success stories include a number of self-published authors landing their titles onto the prestigious New York Times bestseller list for ebook fiction.”

Bowker’s research into self-publishing was prompted by an earlier study that showed 2011’s 148,424 self-published print books represented about 43 percent of that year’s total traditional print output and contributed to the first significant expansion in print production since 2007. While print accounts for 63 percent of self-published books, e-books are gaining fast.  E-book production in 2011 was 87,201, up 129 percent over 2006. Print grew 33 percent in the same period.    

While self-publishing is a DIY undertaking, Bowker’s analysis shows its infrastructure is made up of a handful of large firms. In 2011, CreateSpace dominated the print segment, supporting the creation of 58,412 titles (39 percent of self-published print books).   Smashwords topped the e-book producers with 40,608 titles (nearly 47 percent of total self-published e-books).  The combined divisions of Author Solutions (part of Penguin Group) produced a total of 47,094 titles and Lulu Enterprises checks in with 38,005 titles. The Bowker analysis shows that beyond these four players, no company has more than 10 percent of market share.

Small presses, a category that is defined as publishers who have produced 10 or fewer books, accounted for 34,107 self-published titles — 21,256 print and 12,851 e-books — in 2011. Print book production by small presses increased more than 74 percent between 2006 and 2011 — hearty growth that’s dwarfed by CreateSpace’s 1702 percent increase during the same period.

While marketing their works remains the next great hurdle for self-published authors, Bowker research points to major influencers within their control. Bowker surveys of book consumer habits show that authors can effectively reach more readers with online excerpts, retailer recommendations and customer reviews. 

Bowker is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The Books In Print® database derives a valuable portion of its information from these ISBN assignments, providing the nation’s most comprehensive view of book production. The Self-Publishing Report and other Bowker® Market Research studies that illuminate the business of books are available at http://www.bookconsumer.com/

About Bowker® (www.bowker.com)

Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

The Hunger Games and countless others are engaging a loyal following among those old enough to vote, drink and hold a mortgage

September 13, 2012 (NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ) — More than half the consumers of books classified for young adults aren’t all that young. Fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 – nicknamed YA books — are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44. Accounting for 28 percent of sales, these adults aren’t just purchasing for others — when asked about the intended recipient, they report that 78 percent of the time they are purchasing books for their own reading. The insights are courtesy of Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age, an ongoing biannual study from Bowker Market Research that explores the changing nature of publishing for kids.

“The investigation into who is reading YA books began when we noticed a disparity between the number of YA e-books being purchased and the relatively low number of kids who claim to read e-books,” said Kelly Gallagher, Vice-President of Bowker Market Research. “The extent and age breakout of adult consumers of these works was surprising. And while the trend is influenced to some extent by the popularity of The Hunger Games, our data shows it’s a much larger phenomenon than readership of this single series.”

Indeed, thirty percent of respondents reported they were reading works in The Hunger Games series. However, the remaining 70 percent of readers reported a vast variety of titles (over 220), only two of which commanded more than five percent of overall sales – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Breaking Dawn.

“Although best sellers lead, there’s a long tail of rich reading that has interesting implications for the publishers of YA books in terms of discovery and consumer relationships,” said project editor Kristen McLean.

The trend is good news for publishers as these adult consumers of YA books are among the most coveted demographic of book consumers overall. Additional insights from the Bowker study show these readers are:

• Early adopters. More than 40 percent read e-books, equivalent to the highest adoption rates of adult genres of mystery and romance
• Committed: 71 percent say that if an e-book of their desired title was unavailable, they would buy the print book instead
• Loyal: Enjoying the author’s previous books has a moderate or major influence over the book choice for more than two-thirds of the respondents
• Socially active: Although more than half of respondents reported having “no interest” in participating in a reading group, these readers are very active in social networks and often get recommendations from friends.

Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age is sponsored in the U.S. by Little Brown for Young Readers, Random House, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Disney, Penguin, DK, and Macmillan. To order a copy, contact Bowker Market Research at MarketReserch@bowker.com.

Bowker Market Research is a service of Bowker, an affiliate of global information company ProQuest.

About Bowker® (www.bowker.com)

Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest  affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

Recommender system supports reader advisory, connecting patrons with the “right stuff”

September 10, 2012 (Portland, Maine) – LibraryThing and Bowker® have launched BookPsychic, a new concept in readers advisory — a personal recommender system for libraries. BookPsychic is a service within LibraryThing for Libraries™, distributed by Bowker®, an affiliate of ProQuest. It went live at its first site earlier this month at Maine’s Portland Public Library.

BookPsychic works by inviting library patrons to rate books using an interface that early users felt was familiar and intuitive. Books to rate and recommendations are split into simple genres, like “Recent Fiction,” “History” and “Home and Garden.” As patrons rate more books, the system learns more and more about their likes and dislikes, enabling the creation of “Just for You” recommendations.

“We are excited about BookPsychic because it fits right in with our library’s focus on engaging readers with particularly relevant recommendations for their next read. It’s simple, fun, and fast at doing just that,” said Sarah Campbell, Head of Lending, Technical Services and Systems at Portland Public Library. “It’s good for the library too because BookPsychic recommends what the library actually owns. It’s a way for the library to be of immediate service to our community anywhere, all the time.”

“BookPsychic isn’t just a new service,” said Tim Spalding, president of LibraryThing, “It’s also a new idea — a recommendation system for single libraries. Commercial websites have such systems, but, useful as they can be, they’re about pushing you to buy their products. There’s never been something driven by library values and recommending items you can get for free and often that day.”

BookPsychic’s recommendation system runs off more than 200 million data points from members of LibraryThing.com, a social network for book lovers. It also analyzes book and DVD popularity in the library, and across the more than 300 libraries that use LibraryThing for Libraries. BookPsychic integrates with the social networks Facebook and Twitter for signup, and users can import ratings from LibraryThing.com and Goodreads.

Initial reactions from the library and technology worlds have been positive. Tech publisher and speaker Tim O’Reilly tweeted “More libraries should adopt bookpsychic”. Carli Spina of the “Novel Technology” blog wrote “For an automated tool, I think Book Psychic does a surprisingly good job of coming up with personalized book recommendations. I expect that it will be a hit with libraries and patrons alike.” Twitter user @ethanharris tweeted “OK, bookpsychic.com is seriously GREAT! The recommendations are spot on. It’s like Netflix for my books. Well done.”

Libraries interested in further information on BookPsychic can contact Peder Christensen at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Key links

BookPsychic: http://www.bookpsychic.com

Bowker http://www.bowker.com/en-US/products/servlib_ltfl.shtml

Portland Public Library: http://www.portlandlibrary.com/

Information about BookPsychic, for libraries http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries

About LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a leader in social networking for readers and in software for libraries. LibraryThing.com counts over 1.5 million members who have cataloged 75 million books. In addition to BookPsychic, LibraryThing also offers libraries a suite of ten catalog enhancements, LibraryThing for Libraries, and a mobile library catalog, LibraryAnywhere.

BookPsychic is available exclusively through Bowker®, the global leader in bibliographic information. Bowker also distributes LibraryThing for Libraries and LibraryAnywhere.

About Portland Public Library

Portland Public Library is the largest public library in Maine, providing service from four physical locations (Main Library on Monument Square, Burbank Branch, Riverton Branch, and Peaks Island Branch), via an outreach service targeted at low-mobility populations, and through a growing digital presence. Annually, Portland Public Library loans close to 1,000,000 items and is visited more than 660,000 times. There are also many thousands of virtual visits to various online services provided by or hosted by the library through its website (www.portlandlibrary.com).

About Bowker® (www.bowker.com)

Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.

Leading sources of reviews of young adult and Canadian literature expand the service available from library OPACs

September 6, 2012 (New Providence, NJ) – Bowker® Syndetics Solutions, the popular OPAC and discovery layer enrichment tool, is adding more than 25,000 reviews from key literary journals Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) and Quill and Quire. Libraries who subscribe to Syndetics Solutions can add the reviews to the bibliographic data displayed to patrons through their OPAC or discovery layer, the most common entry points to the library collection.

“Consumers are becoming more and more savvy about evaluating items they find online. Books are no exception,” said Sharon Lubrano, ProQuest vice-president and general manager of Bowker. “Syndetics Solutions consistently adds to its archive of reviews, enabling libraries to create the same user experience with the OPAC – the front door of the catalog – that patrons have come to expect in e-commerce of all types. It’s a simple way to modernize the library.”

The addition of VOYA and Quill and Quire provide fresh perspectives on literature, enabling patrons to make informed decisions on what they check out of the library. For example, VOYA focuses on the needs of young adult literature and reading, adding more than 17,000 book reviews for young adults. Quill and Quire is the premiere magazine of the Canadian book trade and contributes more than 8,000 Canadian book reviews to Syndetics Solutions’ growing online archives.

Book reviews comprise a portion of the 40 million unique descriptive data elements relating to books, audio books, and multimedia available to libraries through Syndetic Solutions’ three platforms: Syndetics Classic^™, Syndetics Plus™, and Syndetics ICE^™. Libraries use the data elements to strengthen the quality of information available to their patrons through their OPAC or discovery layer. Review sources already available include influential and widely read publications such as The New York Times, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Choice, Library Journal and School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian and others.

Syndetic Solutions is a service of Bowker, an affiliate of global information company ProQuest. To learn more about these reviews and others available in Syndetics Solutions, click here.

About Bowker® (www.bowker.com)

Bowker is the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information and management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. Creators of products and services that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, the company also generates research and resources for publishers, helping them understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate, is the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. The company is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with additional operations in England and Australia.