Company to Provide Data that Will Enhance Descriptive Information about Books Digitized in Ambitious Microsoft Project

New Providence, N.J. - January 16, 2007 - Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, today announced that its Global Books In Print database has been selected by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to provide the basic and value-added data that will enhance descriptions of books incorporated in the new Live Search Books search service from Microsoft.

Live Search Books, which was released in beta form by Microsoft in December, is part of an ambitious project by Microsoft to scan millions of books and index them for online searching. The search engine allows users to search the full-texts of scanned books and is currently restricted to out-of-copyright books scanned from the collections of leading libraries such as The British Library, the University of California and the University of Toronto. In a later release, Microsoft will also add copyright works that publishers have given permission to include in the project.

Bowker’s Global Books In Print provides complete bibliographic details on more than 14 million books that are organized in its global database according to 30 powerful criteria. As part of the content licensing agreement with Microsoft, Bowker is also making available its “Publisher Authority” database, which contains company and contact information for more than 200,000 publishers worldwide, and a wide range of other value-added data modules that offer detailed descriptions of books, author biographies, award citations, book review citations, cover images, tables of contents and lists of bestsellers dating back to 1920.

“We’re delighted that Microsoft selected us to be their content partner for this important project and look forward to working with them to provide objective data that enhances the rich information they will be delivering to users of the Live Search Books search service,” said Angela D’Agostino, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Bowker. “Bowker’s overall mission is to integrate our data into everyday work flow tools. We’re very excited about Microsoft’s vision of integrating search more fully into the end user’s day to day work flow and are pleased that our data will play an integral part in the execution of that strategy.”

“This deal provides us with trusted, authoritative information that will help us improve the relevance and presentation of our book search results,” said Clifford Guren, Director of Publisher Evangelism for Live Search Books at Microsoft Corp. “This will be a great relationship.”

The Live Search Books database is now searchable from the book search engine’s home page (http://books.live.com ).

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About Bowker
Bowker is the world's leading provider of bibliographic information management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. The company is focused on developing various tools and products that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, as well as providing services to publishers that help them better understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker is a member of the ProQuest family of companies and is headquartered in New Providence, N.J., with additional operations in England and Australia. For more information, please visit www.bowker.com.