Dawson Books strikes partnership with Kortext

Connect Books’ library supply arm Dawson Books has inked a deal to integrate with the Kortext platform.

The agreement will allow students to access both library material on Dawson's Dawsonera platform and e-textbooks on the Kortext platform through the latter’s app.

The companies are also collaborating on new “library workflow solutions” to make it easier for Dawson users to discover and order Kortext digital textbook content.

Kortext has so far concentrated on striking deals directly with universities to supply e-textbooks to students, most recently partnering with Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Worcester and the University of Strathclyde.

This business-to-business deal means the company will have a link to all the universities that Dawson Books supplies to.

Andy Alferovs, managing director of Kortext, told The Bookseller: “In the context of university content supply, and improving workflow, it is a significant deal. In affect the announcement today is an agreement to say we are going to work together and we will announce further details in due course.”

Jane Johnson, executive director of library services at Dawson Books added: “This is a really exciting partnership demonstrating how Dawson Books are innovating in the library supply market. Our aim is to work with Kortext to improve students’ study experience and help libraries discover and acquire digital textbooks; providing greater value to our customers.”

Kortext enables access to over 500,000 digital textbooks from hundreds of publishers including Pearson, McGraw Hill, Wiley and Cengage and has deals with universities in the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Connect Books, then just known as Bertrams, completed its acquisition of Dawson Books in September 2011.