CliffsNotes are a series of student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

 study guide

Study guide

Study guides can be broad based to facilitate learning in a number of areas, or be resources that foster comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects....

s available primarily in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The guides present and explain literary and other works in pamphlet

Pamphlet

A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...

 form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. In contrast, the company claims to promote the reading of the original work, and does not view the study guides as a substitute to the reading.

CliffsNotes was started by a Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

 native named Cliff Hillegass

Clifton Hillegass

Clifton K. Hillegass was the creator and publisher ofCliffsNotes.CliffsNotes are literary study guides in their familiar black and yellow covers that assist college and high school students in their literature course work. There are currently about 300 titles available in 7,000 retail outlets...

 in 1958. He was working at Nebraska Book Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska, when he met Jack Cole, the co-owner of Coles, a Toronto book business. Coles was also the publisher of a series of Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 study guides called Coles Notes

Coles notes

Coles Notes are student guides to literature, published in Canada. The Coles bookstore first published Coles Notes in 1948. The first title published was on the French novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée....

. Jack Cole offered the American rights to Hillegass.

Hillegass and his wife, Catherine, started the business in their basement at 511 Eastridge Drive, with sixteen William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 titles. CliffsNotes now exist on hundreds of works. The term "Cliff's Notes" has now come into modern usage as a generic noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

 for similar products.

IDG Books purchased CliffsNotes in 1998. John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

 acquired IDG Books (renamed Hungry Minds) in 2001. In 2011, CliffsNotes announced a joint venture with AOL and reality TV show producer Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett is a British television producer and executive producer, based in the United States. He currently is the executive producer of five network television series with seven hours of network programming. Works with which Burnett is associated have won multiple awards and recognition...

 to introduce a series of 60-second video study guide

Video study guide

A "video study guide" offers the content of traditional printed educational supplements in video format.Such "video-centric" educational materials are, increasingly, taking hold in the classroom, both in response to cultural preferences and research....

surveys of literary works.

Other guides

In addition to guides for literature, the company produces several other series of guides, including:

• CliffsQuickReview: A quick reference for information on scholastic subjects, such as sciences, mathematics, and history.
• CliffsComplete: Similar to regular CliffsNotes, but also includes notes and commentary.
• CliffsAP: Advanced placement study guides, including action plans, test-taking strategies, reviews, and exercises.
• CliffsStudySolver: A learn-by-mastering approach to algebra, Spanish, grammar, and other subjects.
• CliffsTestPrep: Test preparation guides for the LSAT, SATs, GED, and other tests.
• Shakespeare on the Double!: The original Shakespeare text side-by-side with a contemporary English version.
• The Manga Editions: Based on the traditional manga format.