Electronic Textbooks | News

Barnes & Noble To Release Free E-Textbook App in August

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/20/10

Barnes & Noble is making a play to broaden its reach into colleges and universities. The bookseller will be introducing a free application specifically for higher ed that lets users manage all of their digital content on a computer. Nookstudy, which will run on Mac OS X and Windows systems, will allow students to manage all their digital content--electronic textbooks, class materials, and notes. The program, which the company said would be made available in August 2010, also performs downloads of textbooks and academic and trade titles offered by BN.com.

Nookstudy lets the user view multiple books and sources at once and offers access to complementary content, including reference materials, and the ability to highlight and take notes and tag content.

"Nookstudy is a big win for college students: It will not only lighten their backpacks, but also help them save money and study more efficiently," said Tracey Weber, executive vice president for textbooks and digital education at BN.com.

The program is currently being tested at Pennsylvania State University; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Queensborough Community College; and Rochester Institute of Technology.