Book People Archive

Microsoft teams with Kirtas on Live Book Search

*Kirtas Technologies Signs Digitization Contract With Microsoft

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* Books will be digitized and searchable on Live Book Search*

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-17-2006/0004453235&EDATE=

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Kirtas Technologies, a leading
innovator and provider of digital scanning solutions, is pleased to
announce the signing of a digitization agreement with Microsoft Corp. to
provide the highest quality digital books available in the world. The
project includes both copyrighted material furnished by publisher partners
as well as select collections of public domain material provided by library
partners.

Staring early next year, these books will become gradually available to
the general public through Live Book Search. Access to the books will
strictly conform to widely accepted copyright laws.

Microsoft selected Kirtas Technologies for its radically innovative
book- scanning technology as well as its unique digitization expertise.
Besides being the fastest robotic book scanner in the world, Kirtas' APT
BookScan 2400 coupled with the BookScan Editor PRO software delivers
superior image quality with a book handling that is gentler than the human
hand. Furthermore, Kirtas' Service Bureau has mastered a proprietary
digitization process that guarantees an overall error rate lower than 1 per
10,000 pages, ensuring a quality mass digitization that will meet the
highest standards and endure the test of time.

"We believe that searching and finding relevant book content will
become an important and integral component to the search experience of Web
users worldwide," said Danielle Tiedt, General Manager of the Live Search
Selection Team at Microsoft. "That's why Microsoft has made the decision to
enable this experience as a key part of our strategy to compete in this
arena. We view Kirtas' innovative technology and expertise in this field as
a key enabler of this massive undertaking."

"We are delighted by this partnership with Microsoft to free up for the
world at large hundreds of years of knowledge that's today held captive by
exclusive library shelves. This is nothing less than the fulfillment of our
founding mission to enable the moving of 560 years of backlog from books to
bytes," said Dr. Lotfi Belkhir, CEO and Founder of Kirtas Technologies.
Microsoft has collaborated with Cornell University Library (CUL) in a
win- win relationship where Microsoft digitizes CUL's outstanding
collections for its Live Book Search portal, while CUL is enabled to meet
the increasing demand of its Library users for online access to
high-quality full-text scholarly material.

"I especially commend the CUL leadership for both their dedication to
Large Scale digitization and their uncompromising attitude towards quality
standards," said Dr. Belkhir. "This 3-way partnership proves that libraries
don't have to settle for inferior digitization just because it's subsidized
by a corporate partner," Dr. Belkhir added.

"Kirtas' involvement was a key factor in our decision making process.
The combination of their revolutionary book scanning technology, their
digitization know-how, and their ability to meet our tough quality
requirements won the day," said Cornell University Librarian Sarah E.
Thomas.

Kirtas is quickly ramping up its digitization capacity in Victor, NY to
meet fast growing demand for its digitization services, and planning on
adding satellite operations in the US and abroad. "We are seeing an
explosion of demand for our digitization services driven primarily by an
emerging market, our revolutionary technology and our commitment to
unmatched quality standards," said Dr. Belkhir.

About Kirtas Technologies
Kirtas Technologies' revolutionary technology redefines digitization of
all bound documents, delivering gentler handling and higher image quality
faster, with fewer errors, and at a lower cost than any other solution in
the marketplace. For more information, visit http://www.kirtastech.com.

SOURCE Kirtas Technologies