Ebooks & Audiobooks: OCLC Announces the Acquisition of cloudLibrary

Here’s the Full Text of Today’s Acquisition Announcement:

OCLC has acquired cloudLibrary, a platform that offers access to a wide variety of digital content through libraries. The acquisition will help OCLC support public libraries in their efforts to successfully manage accelerated shifts to digital collections.

Nearly 500 libraries in 20 countries rely on cloudLibrary to provide access to a rich collection of digital content including millions of ebooks and audio books as well as tens of thousands of magazines, digital newspapers, digital comics, and streaming media services in more than 50 languages. Libraries make these collections available to their communities through cloudLibrary’s top-rated mobile app while a web portal makes it easy for library staff to manage their subscriptions.

“We welcome the cloudLibrary team to the OCLC family. OCLC is in a unique position to provide cloudLibrary with a world-class technology infrastructure and a network of public libraries that serve more than 50 million people worldwide. This acquisition expands our service to public libraries and reinforces our commitment to increasing access to information,” said Skip Prichard, OCLC President and CEO.

Libraries subscribe to their own collection of materials through the cloudLibrary platform. They can also choose to become part of a cloudLink group within a state or consortium.

“cloudLibrary is a great fit for public libraries as they continue to create strategies and manage budgets to support ever increasing demand for digital content,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development, Membership and Research. 

OCLC acquired the assets of the Digital Solutions Group of Bibliotheca, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. This group is responsible for the cloudLibrary platform. Staff members of the Digital Solutions Group are now part of the OCLC staff.

“OCLC is a wonderful organization, and we are delighted that cloudLibrary will be supporting the incredible work they do for libraries,” says Matthew Bellamy, President, Bibliotheca. “We look forward to working closely with OCLC to ensure a smooth transition and maintain cloudLibrary’s deep integrations with Bibliotheca products.”

This acquisition is effective today.

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