by Greg Argo
Quick Summary
Work with Follett? Akademos? Barnes & Noble? These vendor-specific sessions are a chance to share how things really work at your campus bookstore and learn from others navigating the same systems, with a wrap-up session for everyone the following week.
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.
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 to explore what collaboration looks like in practice. Feedback provided by libraries at the MNOP Kickoff meeting led us to try out this smaller-group approach, an offshoot of the Minitex Conversations series we’re calling MNOP Mixers.
We ask that attendees only join the session aligned with their bookstore provider to create trusted, relevant spaces for sharing and discussion. A joint session the following week will synthesize themes and lessons learned across the different models. These sessions are meant for library and other teaching and learning staff. Bookstore vendors and other commercial entities will not be admitted to these sessions.
Schedule and Registration Links (all times CST)
- Tuesday, December 2 at 2:00 p.m. – Follett-affiliated campuses registration
- Wednesday, December 3 at 2:00 p.m. – Akademos or VitalSource-affiliated campuses registration
- Thursday, December 4 at 1:00 p.m. – Independent, self-operated, and other models registration
- Thursday, December 4 at 2:00 p.m. – Barnes & Noble College-affiliated campuses registration
- Tuesday, December 9 at 1:00 p.m. – eCampus.com-affiliated campuses registration
- Thursday, December 11 at 2:00 p.m. – Joint Session: Shared Themes & Lessons Learned registration
Registration is required. You’re welcome to join at any time during the hour. These events will not be recorded. There will be a brief review 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.
If you are a bookstore vendor or staff member and interested in exploring issues alongside library and teaching and learning staff, contact argo0009@umn.edu to plan a session in the future. If you cover both library and bookstore services in your library, please get in touch.
