Note: In August, Random House and Hachette announced programs to disttibute ebooks to the PK-12 marketplace. Those programs allow purchase by libraries. Today’s news from S&S specifically points to classroom use (there is no mention of library use) and also makes clear that ebooks can only be used by one child at a time. 

From Today’s S&S Announcement:

Simon & Schuster, Inc., today announced a pilot program that would make available as digital editions a specially selected collection of its most popular and award-winning PK-12 books for school classrooms nationwide. The publishing house is working with  leading school distributors Booksource, Follett, Mackin Educational,  Resources and Perma-Bound to bring to classrooms nationwide perennial and recent school favorites such as CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, HATCHET by Gary Paulsen, OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper, FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury, ANGELA’S ASHES by Frank McCourt and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS by Ernest Hemingway.

Titles in the pilot program will span the full range of popular school titles from pre-school picture books to chapter books for early readers to higher level fiction, nonfiction and works from Simon & Schuster’s Folger Shakespeare Library.

Effective immediately, schools may work with the participating distributors to purchase digital copies for the classroom. Each ebook purchased may be used in the classroom for one year from the purchase date, and may only be used by one student at a time.

Read the Complete Announcement (PDF)