The Digital Textbook: Try It (Free), You'll Like It

OAK BROOK, Ill., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Thinking about switching to digital textbooks this fall, but aren't sure if they're right for you? Just try one for free. If you like it, then you can buy it.

The popular Try Now, Buy Later program, available exclusively through Follett Higher Education Group's CafeScribe® digital textbook platform, lets students and professors download and use eligible e-textbooks for seven days. Follett today announced it has extended the program through the Fall 2010 semester. The vast majority of Follett's publisher partners are participating, making more than 10,000 titles eligible in all.

To try a CafeScribe digital textbook now:

1. Visit www.cafescribe.com and pick out a title or two.
2. Download the digital textbooks to your PC, Mac, laptop or netbook.
3. Explore your new digital textbooks. Read, search, highlight, bookmark and annotate them. Share notes and discuss online with other readers.
4. If you like the affordability, interactivity, navigability, portability and lighter environmental footprint of your digital textbooks, complete your transaction. All the notes you have taken will remain intact. The CafeScribe digital textbooks are yours to keep forever.
5. In buying the eBooks, save 30 to 50 percent over the cost of new hardbound textbooks.

"It's one thing to hear about an innovative product and quite another to experience it," said Bryce Johnson, Follett's director of e-textbook solutions. "We've seen that with PCs, MP3 players, and smart phones. Once you experience a digital textbook, you'll immediately understand the advantages."

One in three individuals in the Try Now, Buy Later Program goes on to buy the e-textbook, according to a survey of participants in March 2010. Respondents cited the electronic version's lower prices and better portability.

Students and professors can find digital textbooks to try at www.CafeScribe.com and www.efollett.com, or at point-of-sale displays at participating college and university bookstores.

About CafeScribe

The CafeScribe eBook platform is a digital textbook and social networking platform for students and educators. The platform is the latest addition to Follett's broad portfolio of course material options for students, available online and at more than 850 college bookstores operated by Follett in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit www.cafescribe.com.

About Follett Higher Education Group

Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, Illinois, is the leading provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North America. Follett services five million students and over 400,000 faculty members through more than 850 stores. Follett also services more than 1,600 independent campus stores with its wholesale services, and has the most visited ecommerce collegiate website, efollett.com, that provides services and products through a network of more than 900 campus stores.

About Follett

Follett Corporation is a $2.7 billion, privately held company that provides products, services and solutions to the educational marketplace.

SOURCE Follett Higher Education Group