Our Story
Akademos offers a full-service virtual bookstore + marketplace dedicated to helping schools and students save time and money. Our robust technology, deep supply chain and commitment to responsive, personal service make us uniquely qualified to meet the growing need for affordable course materials, efficiently delivered.
Our Vision
We believe every student has a right to affordable educational materials. We also believe schools—in order to meet their educational mission and accommodate their students’ preferences—should have new choices in delivering those materials.
That’s why we’ve created a full-service online solution that delivers huge savings on textbooks and other course materials while providing administrators and faculty with critical control over the process. By offering a service students want to use, schools can build and maintain loyalty within the student community.
With Akademos, students save at your bookstore — now and in the future, as we continue to introduce new media and distribution options to meet increasing demands for affordability, accessibility, convenience, and successful learning.
Our History
As both a student and a professor of political philosophy at Cornell University, Brian Jacobs saw first-hand how the exorbitant costs and complexity of textbook distribution weakened classroom learning. Many students were unable to find or afford the books they needed, often coming to class without the required texts. Professor Jacobs knew there had to be a better way. Working with a leading team of educators and technologists, he founded Akademos in the summer of 1999. More than a decade later, his vision of a full-service virtual bookstore + marketplace has become the model for the efficient, cost-effective purchase and distribution of new and used textbooks.
Our Name
Akademos was an olive grove outside of ancient Athens named for Greek war hero. It is the site where Plato founded his famous school of philosophy and is the source of the English word “academy.” Akademos is often thought of as the birthplace of Western philosophy, scientific reason, and some of our most cherished ideas about justice and the free exchange of ideas. Our name is a constant reminder as to the importance of our mission: to empower individuals and institutions for successful learning.
