ATG Interviews James R. Gray

Against the Grain, Nov 2013

By Katina Strauch, Published on 11/04/13

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ATG Interviews James R. Gray

ATG Inter views James R . Gray Katina Strauch Against the Grain Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation - President and CEO of Ingram Digital Group ATG: Congratulations on your recent appointment as president and CEO of Ingram Digital. You were recently CEO of Coutts InformationServices andMyiLibrary which were acquired by Ingram in December 2006. Now can you explain to us what this means tousinthebookbuyingmarket? JG: Coutts’ being part of the Ingram Book Group is excellent news for the bookbuying market. It means that Coutts has access to over a million extra titles in inventory, which is going to make a significant impact on their ability to offer rapid delivery to book buyers. It also means greater sharing of bibliographic resources, which should improve both the quality and quantity of MARC records available. Finally, Ingram can provide Coutts with a secure source of investment to enhance their services to customers over the long term. MyiLibrary has become part of the Ingram Digital Group, which is the Ingram division focused on e-content hosting, digital asset management and digital distribution services. MyiLibrary now sits alongside VitalSource, which provides digital textbooks, CoreSource, the digital asset management and distribution system, and our range of retail eBook and audioBook solutions. As CEO of IDG I can now focus entirely on the digital arena, including how we support libraries in the transition from print to electronic and in feeding back to publishers an understanding of the needs of the market. Our recent agreement with Microsoft and participation in their Live Search Books program is a great example of what this means for libraries and for publishers. Books that publishers place into the programme that need to be scanned can also be added immediately to MyiLibrary and made available as eBooks and also be made available in print through our sister company Lightning Source, the print-on-demand supplier, giving libraries the opportunity to choose a digital edition of a book or a print version or indeed both! ATG: Can you tell us about your experience in the physical and digital distribution segmentsofthebookindustry? JG: It’s been an interesting journey and so much has changed since I came into the book world in 1992. In that time the environment has changed in astonishing ways, affecting how books are published, distributed, used, bought, stored and accessed. It’s been great to be part of that revolution, which seems to be gathering pace, working with publishers and with libraries to help both make the transition into the digital world. A key part of my work as an eBook distributor has been to consult with both libraries and publishers to find the right business and access models that best serve content owners and content users. While the print book market is still robust, the eBook wave is certainly rising, and we are seeing that eBook revenues in areas such as Science, Technology and Medicine are starting to gain real momentum. Also, with major publishers now providing simultaneous ‘e’ and ‘p’ versions in some disciplines, eBook availability is increasing at a rapid pace. ATG: What does the Ingram group of companies offer publishers and other content ownersthatisunique? JG: At Ingram we offer a unique proposition that combines digital content storage, a complete asset management service and a comprehensive distribution capability to take content into retail, library and consumer markets — into all channels and in all transfer and download formats including print-on-demand. We are also unusual in being a traditional book business that also has a large presence in the ‘e’ world. This means that we have a good understanding of the needs of book-buyers — whether academic libraries, public libraries or retail outlets — and we are a trusted longterm partner for the content creators. This allows us to work closely with publishers to create, agree and deliver eBook distribution models that offer real value to content purchasers in all sectors of the industry. With active relationships with over eighteen thousand publishers around the world, we think we are exceptionally well placed to work with them to address and overcome the complexities of this new digital content space. It’s what we do. It is this combined capability that has propelled us to the number one position for publishers for the distribution of digital content. Right now we are focused on making available as much digital content as we can, in as many formats as the consumers of content require. This means providing solutions for online access to reference material, for downloading academic material such as textbooks for intensive use, and for downloading all kinds of content onto mobile devices and eBook readers including audio content. At the same time we are building channels to markets — retail, institutio (...truncated)


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Katina Strauch. ATG Interviews James R. Gray, Against the Grain, 2013, pp. 16, Volume 19, Issue 4,