More and more librarians like more and more real people use Amazon s catalog. Amazon s affiliates program reaches out through many library OPAC catalogs on the Web. However, one expert in the field considered that smart management of Bowker could repackage and expand its reach using the Web. Bowker still has much broader coverage than any competitor. Its Books In Print covers 3.4 million titles with the global version bringing the count up to 5 million.
Web booksellers major or occasional always love to boast of having a larger invisible inventory.
One logical candidate for a purchaser would be the ever-voracious Thomson Corp., specifically its Gale Group division, which owns Gale Research, the other major library reference publisher. Well-placed sources at Gale Group dutifully informed me that Thomson never comments on possible acquisitions, but assured me equally that if reference products were involved, Gale would be in the game. Who for biographical data for use in its own biographical database products. Marquis, too, is on the block. Barbara Quint, co-editor with Paula J. Hane for NewsBreaks, is editor in chief of Searcher , a columnist for Information Today , and a longtime online searcher.