ABA and Ingram Enter Into Data Deal

Independent booksellers to benefit from data swap

As Bookselling This Week went to press, ABA and Ingram Customer Systems announced an agreement through which the two entities will exchange data for use in their respective trade and consumer products.

Under the agreement, Ingram will license the data included in ABA's Book Buyer's Handbook -- widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive database of book supplier information in the industry. Ingram will use the information in products such as ipage(tm) and companion(tm). In turn, ABA will license Ingram's bibliographic database of more than 2.9 million records -- including title annotations, cover images, and publisher marketing information -- for use by BookSense.com.

In addition, under the agreement, all independent bookstores participating in the BookSense.com program will now receive a 25 percent discount on professional level ipage(tm) and companion(tm) products.

"ABA and Book Sense couldn't be more pleased to have entered into this arrangement," said Avin Mark Domnitz, ABA CEO. "Ingram's ability to help disseminate the Book Buyer's Handbook data will make our product even stronger. And we're very confident that the Ingram data will greatly enhance BookSense.com."

"Over the past five years, Ingram has invested heavily in the technology and expertise necessary to become a top bibliographic provider through our ipage(tm) Web service and companion(tm) CD-ROM," said Kent Freeman, president, Ingram Customer Systems Inc. "Now, we will be able to provide our subscribers with the highest level of supplier data as well. The ABA Book Buyer's Handbook is widely regarded by booksellers as the source for publisher information, and, by adding this information to our existing tools, our customers will have access to unparalleled information."

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