A Virtual Library From Infotrieve

Infotrieve, a Los Angeles– based document delivery company, is revamping its online presence and launching what it calls the Virtual Library Platform, offering customizable online access to an enormous archive of print and electronic content on a free-to-search, pay-per-article basis.

Founded in 1987, Infotrieve (www.infotrieve.com) offers access to citations and abstracts of more than 35,000 academic and scientific journals through its article-finder database. The service also offers access to Medline, the medical database with content from more than 3,900 medical journals; Publist, a database of more than 150,000 periodicals and journals; and an e-content database with access to a wide variety of journals in Adobe's PDF electronic format. In all, the company offers more than 30 million articles and 20 million abstracts through its article-finder service.

Peter Derycz , founder of Infotrieve, told PW that the company offers customized and co-branded online searching for the delivery of hard-copy information. "We pay royalties, we get permissions; everything is cleared and everyone is protected," Derycz told PW. "We sit between the publishers and the customer who needs scholarly articles. We provide one-stop shopping," he said. "STM publishers and corporate libraries are our biggest customers. Research firms contract with us to help their staff, and we provide another revenue stream for publishers' articles."

"Our corporate customers usually have a core library," Derycz said, "but scientists and researchers always need to keep track of everything that is published." Using Infotrieve's virtual library platform, corporate customers can set up an online library through their corporate intranet, which maintains the corporate interface while Infotrieve remains in the background. Infotrieve's e-content database is a new offering, and Infotrieve announced recent e-content deals with Harvard Business School Publishing and with the University of Chicago Press. "It's a small part of the operation now," said Derycz, "but publishers will migrate to digital and our business will grow." Derycz also pointed to Infotrieve's "print and ship" business, a pay-per-article service offering printout and delivery of articles from a database of 3,000 journals stored in digital form. The company also offers books to its clients, but plans a larger service that will add out-of-print books. Derycz is looking for a major retailer to act as a partner and handle fulfillment.

The Virtual Library Platform offers free searching, automated catalogue updating, usage statistics, security checks against hacking and unauthorized copying, and management and tracking tools; institutions can give or deny access, identify who is ordering what and much more.

The company has 280 employees, with its headquarters in Los Angeles and production facilities in Michigan, Germany and Australia. Last year, the company sold more than 1.2 million articles at an average price of $20. Derycz said the company has averaged 50% to 100% growth each year for the last 13 years, "and we expect that to continue."