Barnes & Noble.com On Tour Turns Heads -Wheels and Pages- to Drive Reading Across the Country

Business Wire, May 21, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2000

Interactive Celebration Helps Put Books Into Children's Hands

The wheels on the truck will go round and round during Barnes & Noble.com On Tour, a yearlong celebration of books and technology.

Today in New York City Barnes & Noble.com debuted the massive 80-foot interactive technology center. The complete tour will visit more than 40 cities throughout the United States to benefit First Book, a national nonprofit literacy program dedicated to providing underprivileged children with their first new books.

"Barnes & Noble.com On Tour explores books in their various forms," said Steve Riggio, vice chairman of Barnes & Noble.com "The program celebrates the magic of books, reading and the technology that continues to make the literary experience fun and exciting. Barnes & Noble.com is dedicated to educating consumers to be more comfortable with today's newest technology - whether reading from a handheld PC or shopping online."

Conducted by M3 Marketing and principally sponsored by Barnes & Noble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN), the tour features a truck outfitted with state-of-the-art computers supplied by IBM. The tour will offer thousands of people the opportunity to step into the truck's living room setting to experience first hand the impact of technology on reading today and in the future.

Along the tour, consumers across the country will be asked the question, "What book did you most love as a child and why?" As part of the Children's Classics Collection, they can contribute new copies of their favorite books to support local First Book chapters and their mission to ensure that all children have access to books. According to published literacy statistics, more than 13 million American children live in poverty and for the poorest of children the lack of books is the greatest barrier to literacy-promoting experiences.

"Reading is something that should be celebrated everyday and everywhere," said Kyle Zimmer, President of First Book. "In partnering with Barnes & Noble.com On Tour, we are able to reach children who may not previously have had the opportunity to experience the fun and joy of reading, while illustrating the influence books have on peoples' lives."

While on the truck, visitors to Barnes & Noble.com on Tour will be able to test drive the Microsoft Reader with ClearType technology - revolutionary new software that enables consumers to read on computer displays. The Microsoft Reader is designed to deliver an on-screen computer reading experience that, for the first time, approaches the convenience and quality of reading text printed on paper.

From trading stocks to building treehouses, consumers will also be able to enjoy exciting online technology from other tour sponsors. Ameritrade (Nasdaq: AMTD), brings quality and convenience to the experience of investing online. Ameritrade, one of the world's leading online brokers will bring the online investing experience to consumers as part of the yearlong tour. Ameritrade's online investing experts will be on site to walk visitors through how to set up their portfolios online and provide hands-on investing experience in a simulated investing environment. Ameritrade, the fastest Web site on the Internet, provides the industry's best value and top-notch customer service to today's online investor.

OurHouse.com, another tour sponsor, is the first online destination to provide quality, comprehensive home improvement products, services and how-to information. Partnered with Ace Hardware, OurHouse.com offers consumers access to more than 30,000 products.

About Barnes & Noble.com

Since launching its online business in May 1997, Barnes & Noble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN) has become one of the world's largest Web sites and is the sixth largest e-commerce site, according to Media Metrix. Focused largely on the sale of books, music, software, magazines, prints, posters and related products, the company has become one of the fastest growing online distributors of books.

Customers can choose from millions of new and out-of-print titles and enjoy a variety of related content such as author chats, book synopses and reader reviews. The site also offers thousands of bargain books discounted up to 91 percent, the most popular software and magazine titles, as well as gift items for every occasion. The company recently launched its Prints & Posters Gallery, a unique collection of images that can be produced on demand on museum-quality canvas or high-quality paper, and its eCards service, an exclusive selection of greeting card images that can be personalized and enhanced with animation and music. With access to more than 800,000 in-stock titles, Barnes & Noble.com has the largest standing inventory of any online bookseller ready for immediate delivery. The URL http://www.bn.com makes the site easy to find.