New York University (NYU) and Columbia University students and faculty can now enjoy instant access to thousands of eBooks on their mobile devices with the introduction of Taylor & Francis to the Palace Project. This exciting development brings a wealth of titles published under the Routledge and CRC Press imprints directly to users’ fingertips.

The new partnership between major academic publisher Taylor & Francis and The Palace Project enables university libraries to offer seamless access to their licensed eBook titles through one simple app. The libraries at NYU and Columbia are the first to offer Taylor & Francis titles through the Palace app, providing readers with secure and streamlined connection to a vast range of resources wherever and whenever they need them.

The Palace Project is revolutionizing eBook accessibility through a mobile reading application and content integration platform built by libraries for libraries and hosted as a service for libraries by Lyrasis. Palace enables libraries to integrate content from their various digital content systems into a combined catalog of the libraries’ digital resources in a secure mobile reading app on Android and iOS.

Bill Maltarich, Head of Collection Development at NYU, said: “Collaboration among Taylor & Francis, Lyrasis, and academic libraries delivers over 200,000 additional academic eBooks to NYU users on their mobile devices, while demonstrating the feasibility of the standards-based eBook delivery and the secure, interoperable access it enables. This work advances NYU’s commitment to readers and their freedom to engage with books in different ways as well as libraries’ efforts to innovate, integrate, and exercise the rights that accompany eBook purchases.”

Robert Cartolano, Associate VP for Technology & Preservation at Columbia University Libraries, said: “Our efforts with Taylor & Francis and Lyrasis have led to the inclusion of over 150,000 academic eBooks added to the Palace Project mobile app, greatly improving the reading experience for our students and faculty while supporting open interoperable eBook standards.”

James English, Director of Business Development for Ebooks and Community Engagement at Lyrasis, said: “This collaboration with Taylor & Francis has been remarkable. They are truly a committed, client-first provider of scholarly content to academic libraries, demonstrating a dedicated investment in interoperable infrastructure and the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) standards initiative. This partnership allows The Palace Project to further expand our offerings and support for academic institutions, building off our proven success with public libraries.”

Mark Heaver, Senior Product Manager at Taylor & Francis, said: “We’re delighted to partner with NYU, Columbia and Lyrasis on this project which is helping to make the latest knowledge more discoverable and impactful, by ensuring readers always have access to the resources they need. The early feedback we’ve had from users about this innovative service has been incredibly positive and we look forward to seeing it become available to many more readers in the future.”