Follett Book eFairs...Classroom Book Orders, Reimagined!

Our friends at Follett have an exciting announcement and an awesome new way to look at book fairs! 

In August 2019, they are kicking off a new school year and a brand new offering called Follett Book eFairs! 

Follett has taken a fresh, new look at how to improve on the solution of book fairs that schools have been using for years.  They have re-imagined the whole classroom book ordering process, making it easier and simpler for teachers, and providing new and exciting improvements that will help to ensure that they can support reading/literacy in school and at home, and get schools, classrooms and libraries an additional source of funding.

As the Follett Book eFairs site shares, 

Starting in August 2019, there’s a new way for students to shop popular titles and find stories featuring their favorite characters. Book eFairs build a connection between reading at home and reading at school. Not only will students have an easy place to shop for books, but teachers can also make recommendations for their class. Follett is making it easy to create and manage an online book fair that offers generous rewards for the classroom. For every order placed, teachers get 50% back in rewards to purchase materials for their classroom.

I couldn't me more excited about Follett Book eFairs in my role as a teacher librarian and Innovation Director of Library Media and Instructional Technology at Van Meter Community School.  

In fact, when I first heard about Follett Book eFairs, I instantly thought of several ways this ties into my role as a Future Ready Librarian. 

Follett Book eFairs are one way a Future Ready Librarian can collaborate with teachers as we build instructional partnerships and support literacy and reading all year long.

We will see a great range of titles available every month in Follett Book eFairs. They are offering titles from thousands of publishers.  So, just like on Follett Book Fairs, they will offer a great variety of books that kids want to read and something affordable for every parent.  

Librarians and teachers can collaborate and come up with the best recommendations together which become part of the Follett Books eFairs site. I love this part, because it not only brings us together through collaboration and readers advisory, it is a way to pull in wonderful literacy to all subjects and themes throughout the school year.

We can also connect what we do as Future Ready Librarians to design collaborative spaces and provide our students with spaces to promote community, learning, collaborative, inquiry, creativity and in this case, a community of reading.

This is where I tie in what Follett Books eFairs will mean to our new library branch program taking place within our school this fall. With four new library branches popping up around Van Meter,

this will allow us to not only collaborate, but also fill the shelves with new books through amazing...

 ...Classroom Rewards!

The generous rewards offering for the teacher is straight-forward and easy-to-understand.  Teachers will receive 50% of the sales from each eFair to spend on classroom materials in our Follett Rewards Store.  No complex points. If parents purchase $100 worth of books, the teacher has $50 to spend.  These dollars don’t expire and there is no minimum level of purchases required to earn rewards – it’s just a straight 50%.

Right now, Follett is running a librarian incentive for this program: Librarians can earn up to $5 for each teacher they refer that run an eFair between 8/1 and 12/31 -  and are eligible up to a total of $50 for 10 referrals!

Follett Book eFairs help cultivate community partnerships within the school and community to promote literacy and lifelong reading and learning.

A teacher can have their eFair up and running in just a few minutes and can offer an eFair to families multiple times throughout the school year.  

After you sign up for an eFair,

Follett provides flyers and letters to send home with students.

Plus, you can send email reminders to families through your eFair.

Teachers can easily customize their eFair.  Follett will supply a curation of about 200 books each time, but the teacher can add or remove books – and make their recommendations to families.  Teachers know their students best and can add and recommend titles that fit the needs of their classroom.    

One of the best parts of this...families purchase online – no order forms or checks for teachers to deal with.

As you learn more about Follett Book eFairs, check out the site here and remember all of the special things we will get from hosting eFairs within our school and community.

Don't forget to share your contact information and interest now, and you will earn $25 in rewards for your classroom when hosting a Follett Book eFair between 8/1/2019 and 12/31/2019. 

The Follett Book eFair must be completed by 12/31/19. Maximum of one $25 credit per teacher. To be eligible to receive your bonus rewards, you must complete the online registration form found here.

In my next post about Follett Book eFairs, I will be sharing our plan on how we are going to introduce Follett Book eFairs to our classroom teachers and specialists as we go back to school in August. I will even share a few fun tips on kicking off eFairs with families during Back-to-School Night too!