Collectively,
campus bookstores still remain the dominant purveyor of course materials for
college and university students. Making those materials available is becoming increasingly
complex, with new formats for textbooks and new options for providing them.
On Feb.
20-24, campus bookstores will gather in Atlanta, GA, for the annual Campus Market Expo (CAMEX), a combined professional conference and trade show put on
by NACS for collegiate retailers. The stores’ course materials managers and
coordinators will be focusing on the ConTEXT track, designed to explore new
trends in textbooks and supporting technologies and allow stores to share
what’s working.
This year,
ConTEXT will discuss the preliminary results of a six-month study of digital
course materials, sponsored by the NACS Foundation. Other educational sessions
will examine mobile course materials; parsing textbook sales data to help keep
prices affordable to students; new software tools for course materials
management; how to get started in selling digital content; open educational
resources; providing publishing services for faculty-created materials; academic
content licensing; research data on student and faculty attitudes toward course
materials; trends in health-science textbooks; purchasing habits of students;
how adaptive content fits in with print and digital books; sourcing textbooks
more efficiently; and what stores can learn from Amazon’s sales tactics and its
new campus program.
The Course
Content Technology Fair will allow stores to see some of the latest offerings
in course materials and related technologies from publishers, digital content
platform providers, and textbook management systems. More demonstrations will
take place in the designated ConTEXT Pavilion during the trade-show portion of
CAMEX.
Since
students can’t take advantage of digital tools and content without the
necessary hardware, software, and accessories, stores that provide technology
products will also head for CAMEX for the related CCRA (Campus Computer
Resellers Alliance) Conference. Tech sellers will learn how to better meet the
needs of students and faculty, as well as campus IT and other departments.
