MNOP Mixer Joint Session: Shared Themes and Lessons Learned Campus Bookstores Discussion

Register for the MNOP Mixer Joint Session: Shared Themes & Lessons Learned Campus Bookstores Discussion here.

Campus bookstores are the default infrastructure for managing textbook adoptions, procurement, pricing, and access across most colleges and universities. Libraries may support affordability through OER, licensed content, or reading list systems, but these efforts must usually align with the bookstore’s workflows and constraints, and not the other way around. While corporate bookstore vendors draw on hundreds of institutional examples, most libraries only know their own local arrangement. Because these relationships vary widely, even between campuses using the same bookstore vendor, sharing strategies and experiences across institutions can help libraries balance this information gap and collaborate more effectively.

In small-group conversations, the Minitex Network for Open & Affordable Practices (MNOP) will offer a space for library staff to meet with peers at institutions using the same bookstore vendor (e.g., Barnes & Noble College, Follett, Akademos/VitalSource, or independent and college-owned bookstores) to explore what collaboration looks like in practice. A joint session the following week will synthesize themes and lessons across the different models. Feedback provided by libraries at the MNOP Kickoff meeting led us to try out this relevance-based, smaller-group approach, an offshoot of the Minitex Conversations series we’re calling MNOP Mixers. These sessions are meant for library and other teaching & learning staff, and bookstore vendors and other commercial entities will not be admitted to these sessions. 

Registration is required. You’re welcome to join at any time during the hour. This event will not be recorded. There will be a brief inventory of relevant issues at a high level at the beginning of the hour. If you want to go deeper, see the MNOP Campus Bookstores Toolkit from the previous Minitex Conversation which includes slides and various other one-sheet style documents. 

Register for the MNOP Mixer Joint Session: Shared Themes & Lessons Learned Campus Bookstores Discussion here.