Beginning a New Chapter

Before I started work this morning…

…Holden, my 15-month-old, brought me four books to read to him. ^* 

…I listened to the last 45 minutes of the latest David Baldacci book during my run. ^**

…And I transitioned a stack of completed books that currently served as table decorations inside my desk because Holden is tall and extra mobile for his age and tears down anything in reach.

Books are and have been a large part of the fabric of my life since I was a child. My dad always told me to get my head out of the book and take in the world. I read every R.L. Stine, The Baby-Sitters Club, and Sweet Valley High book available; tackled Gone With the Wind in sixth grade and Wuthering Heights in seventh; decided I wanted to be a lawyer after reading Grisham’s A Time to Kill and decided not to be a lawyer after reading The Chamber; I read print books and eBooks and listened to audiobooks; and wrote my own book about the most impactful story of my career as a television journalist. 

This is why it is both an honor and privilege to continue to lead Follett’s book business: Follett Content. After five generations, in 2021, the Follett family made the decision to sell the PreK-12 business to Francisco Partners. We’ve spent the last three years preparing the content and software businesses to be separate, stand-alone entities, with leadership teams who wake up every day focused on content and software, respectively: Follett Content Solutions and Follett School Solutions. 

As I mentioned earlier, I wake up every day thinking about books.  And now I get paid to spend my entire day fulfilling the mission of Follett Content Solutions, which is to help librarians and teachers get books into the hands of students. I believe reading is the foundation for learning. And therefore, at Follett Content, our vision is to cultivate unmatched trust among librarians, teachers, and administrators to guide students on their journey toward knowledge and success. 

To support our new Follett Content business name, educators will find a dedicated website, social media presences, and email addresses. ^*** “It’s so refreshing to see pictures and posts promoting exciting books and their characters” I told Amy Egan, our head of Marketing, as we launched our new website, follettcontent.com, and @FollettContent social media channels. 

On our new follettcontent.com website, customers will learn about everything Follett Content has to offer. They can register for the fall launch of Follett Book eFairs, our much-anticipated return to online book fundraising. They can sign up to never miss the next book in a series, through Titlewave Series Notifications. And my personal favorite is the video content with authors reading the first chapter in the First Chapter Fridays series or explaining why they wrote it in the Behind the Book series.

While our mutual customers may think of the content and software businesses as “Follett,” the reality is, even under family ownership over the past 150 years, the two businesses have been separated much longer than they’ve been together. And upon reflection, during the years they were separate, we were more effective at meeting the needs of our customers. Which is why I’m even more excited about the opportunity to lead this book business and help make our vision a reality, because every department in the organization is committed to the mission of getting books into the hands of students. 

The Follett Content team and I commit to advocate for educators through our continued support for Future Ready Schools, Every Library, and other organizations designed to further our mission of getting books into the hands of students. 

We vow to partner with our library and classroom customers to support them in finding the right books, at the right reading level for their school community with support from the largest sales force, on-staff librarian curators, and customer service team in the industry. 

We guarantee we will turn each book into a library book with the largest, most tenured cataloging and processing team in the industry, so students around the world can find their next favorite read.

And we promise to deliver each order to schools in industry-leading time thanks to the millions of titles we have on-hand, waiting to be ordered from our McHenry, Illinois warehouse. 

As a member of the Follett family, I want to thank you for your support and business for the past 150 years. And as the leader of Follett Content, I promise to continue the legacy you’ve come to know and trust for the next 150 years.

^*"Five Little Ducks," “The Shapes of Frank Lloyd Wright,” “Five Little Monsters,” and “100 Animal Words” 

^**"The Calamity of Souls," by David Baldacci 

^*** You can reach me at n.britten@follettcontent.com.

About Britten Follett

A fifth-generation family member, Britten Follett is CEO of Follett Content Solutions, which has long been largest provider of educational materials to PreK-12 libraries, classrooms, learning centers and school districts in the United States, and a major supplier to educational institutions worldwide. She has led Follett’s PreK-12 business since September 2019 and is responsible for providing leadership, strategic direction, and business development. In September 2020, Publishers Weekly named her a “PW Star Watch” honoree, one of 40 professionals recognized from the North American publishing industry.