About EBSCO Buying YBP

It’s been ten days since the announcement that EBSCO bought YBP from Baker &Taylor, but the benefit of being late to comment is that we can corral much of what’s already been said.

Here is the original press release from EBSCO that it is buying YBP (including its GOBI platform) from Baker & Taylor.

Here is a PDF of FAQs for current customers.

Both of these documents promise minimal disruption in the near future.

Notably, within an hour of receiving the EBSCO press release over email, I received ProQuest’s press release assuring customers that its ongoing relationship with YBP would not change. ProQuest elaborated on this here, promising that its ebrary and EBL ebooks would continue to be available through GOBI. ProQuest is often seen as EBSCO’s big rival in academic ebooks and online journal databases, and both EBSCO’s and ProQuest’s ebook platforms have been playing reasonably nice with YBP’s GOBI platform.

Here is Baker & Taylor’s press release about the sale of YBP to EBSCO.

Meredith Schwartz at Library Journal did a write-up, with her same-day article containing quotes from three EBSCO executives, as well as an academic librarian from EBSCO’s advisory board.