Press Release

RFB&D Lauds LexisNexis Corporate Citizenship
Site-based Recording Studio Facilitates Production of
Textbooks for Students with Print Disabilities

Princeton, NJ (June 16, 2004) -The Charlottesville, VA, office of LexisNexis will be conducting a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 23 at 3:00 p.m. to commemorate the opening of its on-site recording studio to support Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®) and the nonprofit's Regional Unit of the Virginias and Carolinas. LexisNexis established the studio using funds from a grant provided by its parent company, Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. The ceremony will take place at the LexisNexis facilities at 701 E. Water Street.

The $10,000 grant from Reed Elsevier comes from its Reed Elsevier Cares program, which provides employees with sixteen paid hours per year to perform community service. Reed Elsevier celebrated the one-year anniversary of its Reed Elsevier Cares in 2004 by offering a challenge to each of its divisions around the world to submit an activity partnering employees with a local organization. The entries had to epitomize Reed Elsevier's dedication to playing a positive role in the local and global communities, primarily through employee involvement, with the central focus being education for disadvantaged young people and initiatives of importance to local employees. The LexisNexis Charlottesville office won the top prize for its proposal to operate an employee-run on-site recording studio for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

"We have twin missions locally, nationally and globally, the promotion of literacy and to give aid to disadvantaged young people, so this project was ideal for our company. Our goal is to record 10 textbooks with 1,000 volunteer hours in 120 days," said Ed Gould, Site Lead for the LexisNexis Charlottesville location.

"We knew this was a perfect fit. Our company has partnered with RFB&D on several projects, so we are familiar with the organization and the service they provide for the community. Our goal was to find an activity that the majority of our employees could participate in, and this is a perfect partnership. LexisNexis employees will make a huge impact by working together and that is so gratifying," said Rebecca Gentry, LexisNexis Charlottesville community relations project lead.

Morgan Roth, RFB&D's vice president for public affairs says the site-based studio is testament to the caliber and commitment of the volunteers who create RFB&D's accessible textbooks. "This wholly generous commitment by LexisNexis will resonate nationwide among RFB&D members who rely on our ability to present educational materials through the voices of readers with expertise in the subject areas they read. Specifically, LexisNexis volunteers are going to significantly support our efforts to meet the high demand for legal and technical materials. We are privileged to have the support of LexisNexis and we applaud its high standards for corporate citizenship."

RFB&D is the nation's first and largest nonprofit organization to provide recorded textbooks on CD and four-track cassette to students in kindergarten through graduate school with disabilities such as blindness, severe dyslexia or another physical disability that makes reading challenging or impossible. RFB&D serves 127,000 students nationwide. RFB&D operates 28 recording studios where nearly 5,000 highly trained volunteers read and produce the organization's collection of 98,000 titles housed at the RFB&D's master library, located in Princeton, NJ. RFB&D is located on the web at www.rfbd.org.

LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com ) is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based research service, LexisNexis, the company includes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, Les Editions du Juris-Classeur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.

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