Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC (1888PressRelease)
April 17, 2008 - London Book Fair - UK bookseller John Smith & Son is poised for a significant expansion of its digital line. After a successful trial of VitalSource™, the digital textbook platform from Ingram DigitalSM Educational Solutions, John Smith & Son is preparing to add several more titles to its electronic offering in time for the fall term.
John Smith & Son’s e-book pilot program was launched in collaboration with three UK higher education institutions including Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. Outcomes from the trial revealed an untapped demand for textbooks that fit today’s students’ lifestyles while meeting their academic needs.
“In some instances, the adoption rate of the digital version of a required textbook was as high as 30 percent of the students enrolled in the course,” commented Alan Leitch, John Smith’s marketing director. “The John Smith experiment demonstrated that students are eager to embrace e-books that truly contribute to their learning experience.”
The e-textbooks offered in the John Smith pilot program feature groundbreaking tools including search, virtual highlighting, annotation and collaboration through social networking technology. Ingram Digital’s Vitalbook™ format (*.vbk) is currently the platform of choice among leading academic publishers. John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill and Pearson Education Group are examples of the companies partnering with VitalSource to launch digital textbooks.
“The John Smith e-book pilot program further demonstrates the relevance of interactive, electronic textbooks in today’s digital world,” said William Chesser, VP and GM for Ingram Digital’s Education Solutions. “Once we were confident that we had the right technology to exceed students’ expectations, we focused on developing relationships with all of the major academic publishing houses. Today, hundreds of textbook titles are offered in the Vitalbook format and digital has emerged as a lucrative strategy for booksellers as well.”
ABOUT INGRAM DIGITAL
Ingram Digital is an Ingram Content company. Together with Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc., the Ingram Content companies provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry. Ingram Digital provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital currently has several solution platforms - including MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies - which serve the institutional and educational markets respectively. In addition, Ingram Digital also serves the retailer market with full eBook and audio downloads as well as various search-and-discovery and marketing tools such as widgets. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com
ABOUT JOHN SMITH & SON
John Smith & Son Group Ltd. is a specialist academic bookselling chain. Formed in Scotland in 1751, it has undergone radical changes recently. The 21st Century John Smith & Son is a dynamic, modern company, while still retaining the core values which have made it such a success. Today John Smith & Son comprises 28 campus bookshops, based in universities from Glasgow to Sussex and from Cork to Botswana.
John Smith provides top quality university bookshops in England, Scotland, Ireland and Southern Africa. A new campus retailing format, comprising books together with an extended range of everyday and leisure goods has also been developed. For more information, visit www.johnsmith.co.uk
Contact
Mariana McCulley (919) 459-6455
