At the opening of the Digital Book World Conference in New York City yesterday, the British Library, together with technology partner, Bibliolabs, LLC, was awarded the prestigious Publishing Innovation Award (PIA) for their British Library 19th Century Historical Collection iPad App. The App, released in August last year to rave reviews from both critics and consumers, offers seamless, cloud-based access to more than 45,000 historical works from the British Library, spanning 21 thematic collections.

The Publishing Innovation Awards were established to honor outstanding digital products that enrich and delight readers. The British Library 19th Century Historical Collection App was named the 2012 Winner in the Reference/Academic category.

Accepting the award, Simon Bell, Head of Strategic Partnership and Licensing at the British Library said "The British Library is delighted to be working with the outstanding team of technologists at BiblioLabs to unlock the potential of devices like the iPad. We are thrilled to have been able to offer these exquisite, high-resolution, full-color facsimiles of 19th Century books in a manner that comes close to the experience of leafing through the original item.

This is a great example of how the British Library is using digital technology to make the riches of our historical collections accessible and compelling to a wider audience than was ever previously possible."

BiblioLabs, LLC (www.bibliolabs.com) is the fast growing software-media company that built the cloud-based technology platform to manage the selection, enhancement, and distribution of the featured British Library collection. BiblioLabs, LLC has become a global leader in the creation of interactive Apps featuring historical books and artifacts from the world's leading libraries and cultural institutions.

The Company only recently moved into digital book distribution. It began in 2007 as a print-on-demand (POD) publisher offering historical reproductions. Prior to founding BiblioLabs, LLC the same group started BookSurge, LLC the world's first truly global POD (one book at a time) retail infrastructure, which was sold to Amazon.com in 2005 and was integrated to become Amazon's global print-on-demand solution as well as the Amazon self-publishing service CreateSpace.

"The exciting thing for us is that this is the first App we created and we did it with a very small team, in a very short time," says BiblioLabs founder and Chief Business Officer Mitchell Davis. "It met with phenomenal success as a consumer product when it launched and it has continued to grow" (today it has over 350,000 users in over 150 countries and growing).

"To also have our innovative approach to content distribution recognized by the industry is really an honor and a signal to the great things you will see from us." Davis added "The British Library is an ideal partner. They care deeply about their materials, and the public they serve. They are continuously looking for ways to innovate and increase the impact of their services. Working with them is a true partnership."

Building on the things they learned this past year, BiblioLabs, LLC will roll out a larger App in April 2012 - BiblioBoard. "Tens of millions of historical artifacts are available and our mission is to curate the interesting, quirky, important, weird, or forgotten, then integrate creative modern context and make engaging thematic content products. BiblioBoard is the unified interface where curators will meet readers and this will happen across tens of thousands of books, articles and images within hundreds of curated niche Apps." Curious bibliophiles can sign up for pre-release, preview access at BiblioBoard.com.

At launch BiblioBoard will contain more than forty niche Apps including a number of micro-collections from the British Library. "Our team is hugely excited that as we are winning this award we are already moving to the next generation product." Davis says.

To see all the winners: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/jay-z-big-six-publishers-among-winners-of-publishing-innovation-awards/

For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Emeline Fort, Marketing and Communications Manager
Bibliolabs
emeline@bibliolabs.com

Ben Sanderson, British Library
ben.sanderson@bl.uk
+44 (0)1937 546126
+44 (0) 78100 56848

BiblioLabs, LLC is a hybrid software-media company, with a focus on using technology to enable curators and subject matter experts to discover, enhance and create new works from the wealth of licensed, open source and public domain materials available within their core database. They work with leading organizations around the world to create widespread commercial access to rare and interesting materials in both print-on-demand and digital formats.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world\'s greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world\'s largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library\'s collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. www.bl.uk and follow @britishlibrary