ABC-Clio

ABC-Clio, LLC (stylized ABC-CLIO) is an American publishing company for academic reference works and periodicals primarily on topics such as history and social sciences for educational and public library settings. ABC-Clio provides service to fifteen different online databases which contain over one million online textbooks.[2] The company consults academic leaders in the fields they cover in order to provide authority for their reference titles.[3] The headquarters are located in Santa Barbara, California.

ABC-Clio, LLC
Parent companyBloomsbury Publishing
StatusActive
Founded1953
FounderEric Boehm
Headquarters locationSanta Barbara, California
Distributionself-distributed (US)
Edu Reference Publishers Direct (Canada)
Ontario Library Association (Libraries Unlimited, Canada)
Co Info (Australia)
Inbooks (Libraries Unlimited, Australia)
Marston Book Services (UK)[1]
Key people
  • Ron Boehm (CEO)
  • Becky Snyder (President)
Publication typesBooks, databases, magazines, journals
Nonfiction topicsHistory, social sciences
ImprintsABC-CLIO, Greenwood Press, Praeger, Libraries Unlimited/Linworth
Official websiteabc-clio.com

History

ABC-Clio was founded in 1953 as a privately held corporation by Eric Boehm with its first publication, Historical Abstracts.[4] The name represents the company's two original divisions when it incorporated in 1969: ABC stands for American Bibliographical Center and Clio Press is named after Clio, the muse of history from ancient Greek mythology. According to Boehm, he had always been interested in history so when he noticed that there were not many good historical abstracting services available, he started publishing the Historical Abstracts.[5]

During the 1960s, a sister bibliographic and abstract publication on American history was added, America: History and Life, which was considered an award-winning title. The company entered into digital publishing with electronic data in the 1960s and in 1975, it published its first online database[4] called DIALOG. During the 1980s, ABC-Clio expanded into providing primary reference books such as encyclopedias and dictionaries and stopped publishing bibliographic books.[5]

In the 1990s, ABC-Clio began to provide access to its humanities database on CD-ROM. The Exegy Current Events CD-ROM was named "Best Disc of the Year" by Library Journal.[6] In 1998, ABC-Clio provided electronic access to America: History and Life. By the 2000s, one of the company's most popular products had become online databases for researching many topics in the field of the humanities. In 2001, ABC-Clio began to publish eBooks, initially providing 150 different titles to schools and libraries.[4] The company's reference books had won numerous awards, and the company started a series of subject-related online databases for secondary school use. In 2004, the company acquired the quarterly historical journal, Journal of the West, which has been published since 1962.[6]

In 1996, ABC-Clio merged with an electronic publishing company, Intellimation, which also produced educational software. The merger brought Becky Snyder, ABC-Clio's current president, from Intellimation.[7] It sold Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life to EBSCO Publishing in 2007.[8] Bloomsbury Publishing acquired ABC-CLIO in December 2021.[9]

Subsidiaries

ABC-Clio/Greenwood
Main article: Greenwood Publishing Group

In 2008, ABC-Clio acquired the Greenwood Publishing Group from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The deal gave ABC-Clio a "perpetual license" to use the imprints of Greenwood Press and publish all of its titles. Acquiring the publishing group gave ABC-Clio access to Greenwood Press, Praeger Publishers, Praeger Security International and Libraries Unlimited.[11] Greenwood focuses on publishing full-text reference works which are authoritative on various topics.[12]

Libraries Unlimited

Libraries Unlimited came to ABC-Clio as part of a deal with Greenwood Press. In 2012, Kathyrn Suárez was named Publisher for this division which focuses on publishing for librarians and information professionals.[12]

ABC-Clio Solutions

ABC-Clio databases are provided under the umbrella of ABC-Clio Solutions. There are fifteen different databases providing access to different subject areas.[2] ABC-Clio Solutions provides digital curriculum with multimedia content, text-to-speech features, translation tools which covers various topics relating to history and the humanities.[13] After ABC-Clio acquired Greenwood Press's databases, they revamped the look and feel of their interface in order to provide common access through the ABC-Clio interface.[14] ABC-Clio also provided the ability to search across multiple databases through one search, also providing options for narrowing the search after revamping their interface.[15] The new interface is considered user-friendly and provides access to personalized features.[16]

Praeger

Praeger is known for publishing "scholarly and professional books" in the subject areas of social science and the humanities.[12]

References
  1. "ABC-CLIO Solutions – Contact Us". Archived from the original on 2017-12-05. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  2. "Database Offers 1 Million Free Resources and Images in April". eSchool News. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  3. Vnuk, Rebecca (15 September 2012). "Encyclopedia Update: Reboot, 2012". Booklist. 109 (2): 52–56. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  4. Costello, Megan (2 April 2001). "E-books a natural for ABC-CLIO". Publishers Weekly. 248 (14): 28–29. ISSN 0000-0019. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  5. Hane, Paula J. (January 2001). "ABC-CLIO Stresses Customer-Based Products". Information Today. 18 (1): 12. ISSN 8755-6286. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  6. "History and Mission". ABC-CLIO. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  7. Rogers, Michael (May 1996). "ABC-CLIO merges with Intellimation". Library Journal. 121 (8). ISSN 0363-0277. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  8. "EBSCO Acquires Two Renowned Databases from ABC-CLIO: Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life Archived April 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine". June 15, 2007.
  9. "Bloomsbury Buys ABC-CLIO for $22.9Million".
  10. Two Top Professional Development Publishers Partner to Create Next-Generation Resources for Librarians and Educators
  11. Albanese, Andrew (November 2008). "ABC-CLIO "Buys" Greenwood Imprints". Library Journal. 133 (18). ISSN 0363-0277. Archived from the original on 27 November 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  12. "Kathryn Suárez Appointed Publisher of Libraries Unlimited". Santa Barbara Independent. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  13. "ABC-CLIO Upgrades History Instruction with Multimedia Content". eSchool News. 18 February 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  14. Quinn, Mary Ellen (1 November 2010). "Another Look At: ABC-CLIO Databases". Booklist. 107 (5): 90. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  15. Kuzyk, Raya (16 November 2007). "Reference Into the Future". Library Journal. 132: 8–11. ISSN 0363-0277. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  16. O'Gorman, Jack, ed. (2014). Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries (8th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: ALA Editions. pp. 7–8. ISBN 9780838912126.
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