Booktracks, powered by Atriuum, is a Web-based solution designed to help you control a very expensive problem within schools and school districts -- management of textbook inventory.

Management using Booktracks can save money by reducing the need for purchasing replacement textbooks, reduce staff time distributing textbooks, and provide accurate accounting for the distribution and return of textbooks.

Challenge
Textbooks represent a substantial investment for any school. A district may spend as much as $350 per student for textbooks - totaling as much as $1.75 million dollars for a district with a population of only 5,000 students. These assets leave campus each day and travel to destinations unknown. Over a semester or a year's time, many textbooks are damaged or lost. Students and parents have no personal investment in the initial cost of textbooks; therefore, some have little interest in maintaining the materials and being accountable for them.

An annual loss of 8% of the textbooks in a district with a population of just 5,000 students would be at least $140,000 for replacement textbooks. Districts six times that large having 30,000 students will sustain an annual loss of at least $840,000 dollars. Larger districts, with more than 50,000 students, may experience annual losses greater than a million dollars.

Affordable Solution
Booktracks provides a cost-effective win-win solution to address this costly problem that persists for school districts year after year. Compared to replacement costs, Booktracks provides a great Return on Investment (ROI). Booktracks is the ultimate centralized textbook management solution for an entire school district or for just one school. The program is easy to learn because it is straightforward and operates similar to other products you already use.

Booktracks can track the distribution of textbooks from a central site to the student to whom each textbook is issued. Intermediate steps in the distribution process are trackable, i.e., transit from one location to another, receipt of textbooks at the building level, and receipt by each student. Booktracks makes this possible, because it is a Web-based product that provides access to centralized textbook data via any computer with a supported Web browser.

By design Booktracks makes possible the following:

• Centralized installation
• Centralized maintenance
• Worry-free updates administered by Book Systems technicians
• Designed specifically for Linux or Windows 2003 Servers
• Accessible via a WAN or the Internet
• Accessible from workstations with a supported Web-browser
• Optional Application Service Provider (ASP)

Reports are generated quickly and easily. Report templates, that you design and name, can be saved for future use. These templates, with your options already configured, will assist you in submitting government mandated reports.

Savings and Peace of Mind
Savings realized can be even greater than the monetary cost to the district. Peace of mind is priceless! The calculations shown above illustrate the serious money associated with the cost of replacement textbooks. Such costs stress budgets and people.

Tremendous savings can result using Booktracks by issuing both accurate and timely notifications concerning damaged and missing textbooks. Such notification helps shift the burden of responsibility from the district to the student and his or her parents. Accountability for textbooks helps students grow to accept responsibility, thus reducing the number of textbooks that are lost.