EBSCO Publishing Acquires SPORTDiscus™ from SIRC

IPSWICH, Mass. — April 12, 2005— EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of SPORTDiscus™ from the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC). Based in Ontario Canada, SIRC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of sport research. Its flagship database, SPORTDiscus, is considered to be the primary sport research tool in academic and medical libraries worldwide.

This acquisition demonstrates EBSCO’s commitment to heightening the research experience through specific, powerful information resources. “SPORTDiscus is the foremost database available today covering areas of sport, fitness, exercise, and related disciplines,” said Mark Herrick, Vice President of Business Development for EBSCO Publishing. “We are excited to have this well-respected database in our growing suite of products and services.”

According to SIRC President and CEO, Debra Gassewitz, the database industry overall is in a state of change and growth. “SPORTDiscus is well positioned for EBSCO to further develop and enhance this extraordinary resource. We are pleased to transfer SPORTDiscus to a company with whom we have had a long-standing business relationship and that recognizes the importance of sport research. EBSCO’s knowledge and financial support will ensure that the database reaches the next level of exposure.”

EBSCO will continue to provide SPORTDiscus in its current form and utilize the indexing and sport research expertise from SIRC. The company plans to further develop SPORTDiscus through new and current journals and other non-journal sources such as coaching manuals, working papers, conference proceedings and instructional components. EBSCO also plans to analyze, update and enhance the overall user experience through a variety of additional database-specific features and components. Looking ahead, EBSCO’s plan calls for the development and eventual release of the full text counterpart to SPORTDiscus – SPORTDiscus with Full Text™.

About SPORTDiscus
SPORTDiscus is the most comprehensive, bibliographic database covering sport, physical fitness, exercise, sports medicine, sports science, physical education, kinesiology, coaching, training, sport administration, officiating, sport law & legislation, college & university sport, disabled persons, facility design & management, intramural & school sport, doping, health, health education, biomechanics, movement science, injury prevention rehabilitation, physical therapy, nutrition, exercise physiology, sport & exercise psychology, recreation, leisure studies, tourism, allied health, occupational health & therapy, public health and more. With full bibliographic coverage, this database includes over 650,000 records with journal and monograph coverage going back to 1800; over 20,000 dissertations and theses and reference to articles in 60 different languages. The content also consists of international references from journal and magazine articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and more.

About SIRC:
Founded in 1973, SIRC (Sport Information Resource Centre) is a private, not-for-profit corporation based in Ottawa, Canada with over 6.5 million pages of sport research in our collection.

Our clients consist of international, national and provincial sporting organizations; sport medicine practitioners and educational institutions committed to the development of sport. These organizations have an on-going need to educate their memberships and have access to the most current research. SIRC has and will continue to be their source for academic and medical sport information.

SIRC offers services in the areas of indexing, research, communication, education and knowledge management. In addition, SIRC manages several programs that inspire, acknowledge and celebrate academic and sport excellence.

Visit SIRC online at: http://www.sirc.ca

Contact:
Debra Gassewitz
President and CEO
SIRC Sport Research
Tel: (613) 231-7472
Toll: (800) 665-6413

About EBSCO Publishing:
EBSCO Publishing is part of the EBSCO Information Services group. EBSCO Information Services provides libraries and research centers with online and print journal subscription services, e-resource access and management services, full-text and secondary database development and access, an OpenURL-compliant link resolver, online book purchasing and related information services. EBSCO maintains a title database of more than 282,000 serial titles and upholds relationships with more than 60,000 publishers around the world. EBSCO’s 32 Regional Offices worldwide are staffed with personnel who speak the local language and understand the particular challenges faced by librarians in their areas, offering a uniquely personal level of service. Specialized divisions serve academic, biomedical, government, public, school and special libraries as well as corporations. For more information, visit www.ebsco.com.