November 19, 2011 | Posted by Colm
Yesterday, Powis Parker the world leader in document presentation systems and developer of the patented Fastback binding machine has appointed DBC group as their European distributor for its Powisicase iPad case.
The Powis iCase is manufactured in Berkeley, California, by Powis, a 28-year veteran company in the bookbindery business.
“Given our already high customer demand in Europe, it makes sense for us to provide distribution directly in Europe, making it cost effective and timely for our customers,” said Kevin Parker, CEO of Powis. “DBC Group has been a distributor of ours for many years and we are pleased to have them now carry our Powis iCase.”
Read full press release, click here
Categories: Latest News | 
Tags: iPad covers | 
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November 15, 2011 | Posted by Olivia@dbcgroup.ie
Here is some information about the management issues to consider when investing in a School Book Rental Scheme.
Management Issues
A textbook fund administrator will need to be appointed and this can be delegated to a deputy head, a senior teacher or a member of the Parent Teachers Association. The appointee would be responsible for the scheme’s day to day running at the school.
The duties include the following:
Identifying new books and class participation.
- Organizing the tagging and covering of books
- Distributing books to students
- Collecting rental fees from students
- Requesting additional books when needed
- Maintaining textbook ledgers
- Developing a school book policy
- Instructing students on proper textbook care
- Collecting books at the end of the year and returning the textbook inventory and re-ordering form
- Negotiating purchase/volume discounts with booksellers for following year
The senior management team (Principal or PTA) is often responsible for the proper administration and management of the fund.
If you have any questions or require more details on book covering systems, visit our website or contact us: + 353 1 460 2200
Categories: Book Protection Blog, School Book Rental Schemes | Tags: | Comments Off
October 11, 2011 | Posted by Olivia@dbcgroup.ie
Further to the Blog Post How to Set Up a School Book Rental Scheme, here is some information on the grants available when investing in a School Book Rental Scheme.
What is a School book rental scheme?
School book rental schemes can alleviate the costs of purchasing text books for parents and Pupils in both primary and post primary schools. Effectively, it’s a rental scheme that “pools” the upfront costs of purchasing books for selected classes or set of curriculum books by amortising both the cost of purchase and depreciation of the books over a set period of time, normally 3 years. In general, the scheme is administered in each school by the school principal in association with the Parent Teachers Association (PTA)
What Grants are available?
A grant scheme is available for students to help with the cost of school books. The scheme is mainly aimed at pupils from low-income families and families experiencing financial hardship. Funding for the scheme comes from the Department of Education and Skills. Broadly speaking, students who may be eligible for assistance under the School Books Grant Scheme include:
- Families that are mainly dependent on social welfare payments
- Families on low incomes, (for example, those receiving Family Income Supplement, and the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance)
- Families experiencing financial hardship because of particular circumstances (for example, where there is prolonged illness of a parent/guardian, addiction problems, etc.)
- Students who are in the care of foster families under arrangements made by a Local Health Office and students participating in Youthreach, VTOS and Post-Leaving Certificate Courses are ineligible for assistance under the School Books Grant Scheme.
However, in the current economic climate the rental scheme is rising in popularity amongst the general school community.
The rates for schools in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme are higher than those for non-DEIS schools. Payment of funding to be allocated to schools to provide assistance for books can be analyised as follows: (2011 Data) 
Primary Schools: (As of April 2011)
The allocation to schools for books allows an additional per capita funding of:
- Allocation to DEIS schools for books €21
- Allocation to non-DEIS schools for books €11
Post Primary Schools (As of June 2011)
The additional per capita funding to be provided is:
- Allocation to DEIS schools for books €39
- Allocation to non-DEIS schools for books €24
- Junior Certificate Schools Programme €60
- Transition Year Programme €95
- Leaving Certificate Applied Programme €151
- Physics and Chemistry €13
If you have any questions or require more details on book covering systems , visit our website or contact us: +353 1 460 2200
Categories: Book Protection Blog, Latest News, School Book Rental Schemes | Tags: Colibri, school book rental scheme | Comments Off
September 5, 2011 | Posted by Colm
Last week, the Department of Education announced that it will examine how €15 million in grants allocated annually to schools to run book-rental schemes will be reviewed. The grant is worth €11 for each primary school pupil and €24 for second-level students. An additional €10 and €15 per child is offered at primary and second-level, respectively, for schools that cater for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The up-shot of this announcement is an agreement that the Department will implement a nationwide school book rental scheme as a part of their approval.
This action comes on the back of a recent campaign by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) launched earlier this year to help reduce the yearly cost of school books by calling for a new government policy that would regulate the publication of new editions of school books.It’s success means that unless utterly necessary, publishers can only print new editions of school books every four years giving Families and students the option to rent, lend, hand down, or sell pre-owned books. This will substantially reduce the cost of education particularly to those finding it difficult to fund the costs in the current environment.
Schools, families, and book rental shops can make the most of the additional 3-year mileage of school books by using a top-of-the-line book covering system such as the CoLibri Book Covering Machine. It’s a low-maintenance, easy to use, affordable, eco-friendly, and ergonomically designed book covering machine guaranteed to give every book its maximum shelf life.
This is good news for our Colibri Book covering machine as it is now the system of choice for many primary and secondary schools throughout Ireland for the protection of loan books. The system applies a custom fit protective jacket to any size and shape of book, quickly and easily.
To find out more about how our system please click here!
Finally, if you are a school principle or Parent Teachers association that are reviewing the viability of a school book rental scheme, click here for our “How to Guide ”
Categories: Book Protection Blog, School Book Rental Schemes | Tags: Colibri, school book rental scheme | Comments Off
