Berkeley, CA . July 9, 2007 - The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) announced today that it would begin selling its Institutional Repository platform directly. The bepress Institutional Repository platform currently powers the eScholarship Repository of the University of California system as well as over 50 schools under the name of Digital Commons sold by ProQuest Information and Learning.
"We are extremely excited to begin selling our Institutional Repositories solution directly," said Aaron Edlin, President & CEO of the Berkeley Electronic Press, adding, "This creates all kinds of opportunities for us to promote scholarly communication, our core mission."
For the past three years, the bepress platform has been licensed exclusively by ProQuest Information and Learning. Henceforth, all new licenses will be made directly by bepress.
At this point, roughly 1/3 of American Research Libraries have Institutional Repositories with many more still in the planning stages. According to Wikipedia, "An Institutional Repository is an online locus for collecting, preserving, and disseminating -- in digital form -- the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution."
To spearhead bepress' sales effort, the company recently hired Tim Tamminga, formerly of Endeavor Information Systems, a subsidiary of Elsevier. Mr. Tamminga is Vice President of Global Sales, bepress services, and came to bepress with a wealth of experience in educational technology systems and an expertise in digital preservation.
According to Tim Tamminga, "The bepress IR product completes the bepress package of open access publication tools, with SelectedWorks for individuals to create their own websites for showcasing their intellectual accomplishments, EdiKit to manage the workflow processes of creating and managing the publication of journals and individual working paper series, and now IRs to host an entire organization's intellectual output. Integration of all these capabilities into the Institutional Repository service will be our focus for the short term."
About The Berkeley Electronic Press
Founded by academics in 1999, The Berkeley Electronic Press ("bepress") is both a publisher of peer-reviewed electronic journals and a software developer, having created the institutional repository platform that powers Digital Commons as well as the University of California's eScholarship Repository. The Company produces tools to improve scholarly communication via innovative and effective means of content production and dissemination. Bepress has a portfolio of products and services that reduces the costs of and barriers to access.