Follett, a distributor of educational materials, has announced that it has developed an eBook reader for education that is aimed at classrooms and libraries. Now, don’t be mistaken. This isn’t a portable eBook reader. It’s a software reader that is paired with its own online store. They claim that this reader should protect publisher content while introducing new “education-friendly” technology. It may not be exciting but it’s probably good news for schools that can’t afford 500 units of this or that kind of hardware.

Here is the rundown on features:

• A selection of eBook Library views (thumbnails and cover flow) for browsing your downloaded eBook collection
• Two different page views (single and facing)
• Search tools, including “find text” and “find next” functionality
• Publisher pre-defined copy/paste and print capabilities
• Zoom in/out function to customize your views (by percentage, fit to page, height and width)
• Pre-defined bookmarks to jump to relevant content when set by the publisher
• Note-taking tools with highlighting

The new Follett Digital Reader system will be replacing their previous Adobe PDF eBooks in March 2nd of this year. Hopefully this will save our schools a little money and a lot of paper.