Publisher Creates Exclusive Library Analysis Tool with Standards Alignment Data 

Updating titles and products to meet state academic standards is a continuous process for publishers of K-12 books for libraries and classrooms. Capstone Publishers partners with Academic Benchmarks to replace its once manual and arduous “updating” process with a highly efficient alignment system. “A smart move,” says the company whose leaders see new opportunities to create exclusive tools for school libraries.

Client Snapshot
Capstone is the leading publisher of pre-K-12 children’s books for libraries and classrooms. Its
20,000-item product line includes nonfiction and fiction titles, picture books, interactive books, audio books and literacy programs. The Capstone family focuses on products for struggling and reluctant readers. Capstone’s main customer is school libraries and their media specialists.

Challenge
For each of Capstone’s titles, the company must research state standards in a specific core content area – such as science, social studies, math, or language arts – and then refine its search to a specific grade level to match content with current curriculum standards for a given state. When a state changed or replaced its standards, the “updating” process had to be repeated, using a continuous, hands-on, and time-consuming process for the company.

The AB Solution
Using the AB Standards Registry and the Academic Benchmarks Alignment System, Capstone can now quickly realign its books to changing standards. Given the powerful algorithms applied based on Capstone-defined parameters, Capstone aligns its products to standards only one time. Capstone customers can justify their book purchases because they can be assured that the books’ content is aligned to the state’s standards.

Action
Capstone obtained and placed the Academic Benchmarks data on its ecommerce site to allow its sales force, distributors and customers to search for products by a specific state standard.
Or, if desired, as they browse individual titles, customers can also determine to which standards a particular book is aligned. Librarians and teachers are therefore able to select the most appropriate books for their library collections and classrooms based on state standards.

Result
In addition to the tremendous timesaving and high efficiency-related results of this relationship, Capstone also capitalized on the AB Standards Registry and Academic Benchmarks Alignment System by embedding the AB-provided data into its new online collection analysis tool for libraries. Capstone CollectionWiz, built using AB standards data, gives libraries the ability to analyze their collection and automatically recommend titles that correlate to a specific state's standards.

Academic  Benchmarks  •  www.academicbenchmarks.com
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