Books

Texas Adds More than 200 Books to Digital Resources Program

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 06/15/16

Students at schools participating in the Texas TexQuest program will soon have access to more than 200 additional e-books.

"TexQuest is a statewide digital resources program that provides anytime, anywhere access to high quality, authoritative digital resources to all educators, students and students' immediate families in Texas K-12 public schools and open enrollment charter schools," according to information on the TexQuest site. "Supported, in part, by appropiations from the Texas State Legislature, Texas districts pay a small per student participation fee to gain access to TexQuest resources from the providers" associated with the program.

Britannica Digital Learning has partnered with TexQuest to make 222 books designed for primary grades available from four different collections:

• English Language Learners;
• Early Reader Library;
• Elementary Life Science; and
• Elementary Earth Science.

"In our information-based economy the continued success of our state depends on access to the resources contained in online database programs like TexQuest," said Mark Smith, director and librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, in a prepared statement. "Use of these collections will no doubt help students and their families live more informed and productive lives."

"This will provide great benefit to the students, teachers and families of Texas," said Michael Ross, general manager of Britannica Digital Learning and a senior vice president at Encyclopaedia Britannica, in a news release. "They'll have access to all titles 24/7, and by acquiring the collections on a subscription basis the state will be able to track usage and see which titles are most popular, which will help them address their future needs."