[Athen] Follett and BryteWave, how accessible is it?

[Deborah Armstrong]

So our bookstore was taken over last year by Follett. Our campus PR states:

>Follett, which operates more than 1,100 college and university bookstores across the United States and Canada, brings the advantages of extensive supply

>chain, economies of scale and new technology. The company offers the nation's largest textbook rental program, an extensive selection of used, digital,

>new and OER materials, and a price-matching program.


Their website is:
              https://highered.follett.com/

So far it seems to be really welcomed by faculty, and when I've checked prices, textbooks are a bit cheaper.

One thing I'm seeing repeatedly though is how inexpensive renting digital copies of textbooks is. They are using a platform called BryteWave which I've never heard of.

I hate to tell a student to buy an over $150 textbook for me to scan and imperfectly convert if the digital version they can rent for $34 a quarter is actually accessible.

But of course, I don't know if that textbook is accessible.

Here's their customer service page on ebooks; it's very generic:
              https://customersupportcenter.highered.follett.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061500574-Digital-Materials
I found nothing about  who actually provides the digital copies, only a lot of stuff about DRM.  Our own bookstore site mentions BryteWave several times.

Any thoughts on how I can further investigate it. The above prices were not exaggerations!

--Debee

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