Collegiate Retail Alliance partners with CourseSmart

Earlier this week, the Collegiate Retail Alliance (CRA), a coalition of 52 independent college stores, announced a partnership with CourseSmart that will integrate CourseSmart’s products and services into CRA’s VisualRATEX store management system. Users of the VisualRATEX system can now offer students 6,000 e-textbooks from 12 publishers. Students will be able to purchase the e-textbooks in the college store by picking up cards with access codes that will be placed near the printed version of the book. Once the access code has been authorized, students will be able to download the e-textbook to their desktop or access the book online via CourseSmart. Later this year, an eRATEX web store will also be available. Richard McDaniel, CRA President and Chairman, explained the initiative by saying, “As course materials shift to new platforms, the ability to offer students texts in electronic as well as print formats is essential.”