BrowZine allows students to easily browse magainze and journal articles on iOS and Android tablets.
Most college students can relate to the struggle involved with browsing academic journals online. Many database interfaces are clunky or difficult to read and users are unable to easily browse titles.
Enter Third Iron: a St. Paul, Minn.-based startup that provides students with advanced library technologies. The startup’s app, BrowZine, launched in the Apple App Store one year ago and has since been released for Android tablets as well. With a similar interface to Apple’s Newstand, BrowZine allows students to browse academic journals and magazines much more easily than with online databases. 
Thanks to our sponsor
“Most libraries have discontinued most of, if not all of, their print subscriptions to journals or magazines,” said Third Iron CEO Kendall Bartsch (right). “But there’s still a lot of research being published and journal articles being written. We want to let people know that journals still matter and people still want to interact with that research material as a journal.”
Since the idea for BrowZine was conceived, Bartsch and his co-founders—Third Iron CTO Karl Becker and its president and COO John Seguin—have signed more than 140 colleges and universities from around the world. Familiar institutions include the University of Iowa, University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Although the Third Iron team is scattered across the Midwest—with members in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas—the company has strong Iowa roots. Becker is a former Cedar Rapids resident, while Bartsch is a Drake Unversity and University of Iowa alumnus.
Becker, who is well-known for his top-selling Car Care app, says the concept of BrowZine seems so simple it was a shock something like it hadn’t already been built.
“In fact, for me personally as a college student, I thought something like this already existed,” Becker (left) said of BrowZine. “It’s a no-brainer that we needed to build something like this.”
Although Bartsch says the company received funds from angel investors earlier this year, he and Becker credit the application’s strong revenue model as the reason additional raises haven’t been necessary. App users are not charged for BrowZine, instead libraries pay a subscription fee and allow students access.
“What we’re really finding too is that the BrowZine experience is very consistent with how users want to interact with traditional magazines or journals,” said Bartsch, who has almost 20 years experience in the information and library space.
While BrowZine’s focus was—and still is—on academic libraries, Becker says the app has begun to receive attention from the medical community. “I would say it’s a bit of an opportunity that we didn’t start focusing on until they started focusing on us,” he said.
Learn how BrowZine can impact student’s learning experience on a day-to-day basis:
Credits: Product and Kendall Bartsch photos courtesy of Third Iron. Karl Becker photo from The Gazette. Video from Vimeo.
