November’s Usages Stats, SLATE is Happening Now!, & Flipped Classrooms: Curation

Happy Tuesday, all!

November’s Usage Statistics

Last week’s message announced that during November the WSDLC collection has reached TWO MILLION CHECKOUTS! This is such an exciting milestone that it bears mentioning twice!
November’s usage is still increasing: There were over 111,000 checkouts (compared to 2020’s 90,000 November circulations), and 848 unique users with checkouts (compared to 735 unique users with checkouts in 2020). And even with more students accessing the collection, hold times this school year have dropped! The average hold time (in days) decreased in September, and are still staying below where they were at the same time last year!
You can download the full calendar year’s statistics .xlsx spreadsheet, which includes detailed information on circulation numbers, holds, and other metrics, broken down by month, at the bottom of the WSDLC Year to Date Statistics page.
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The Annual SLATE Conference Is In Full Swing! (And runs through December 8th)

The School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education (SLATE) Conference is currently in-session at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells! The SLATE Conference boasts over 100 sessions on technology in education meant for a wide variety of educational leaders including Teachers, Principals, Associate Principals, District Administrators, Library Media Specialists, IT Coordinators, Directors of Curriculum and Instruction, and others. You can find registration information here.
While you’re at SLATE, make sure to swing by the WSDLC booth (#703) on December 7th (TODAY!), where Project Manager Sara Gold will be available to chat with you about the shared collection and answer any questions you may have.
OverDrive will also be hosting a booth, and our very own Account Executive Connie Bowman will be there to share what’s new, coming soon, and in development with OverDrive and Sora.
Please stop by both booths and say “Hello”! We’d love to see your faces!
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Flipped Classrooms: Curation is Underway!

It’s December, which means our self-paced training series is on to the next theme, Curation! This month you can learn all about Curation in OverDrive/Sora, and how you can create and post your very own curated collections to support your students’ needs and interests
During Flipped Classroom months, materials on various topics are available for members to review, and OverDrive staff is ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer your questions.
If you have any questions or comments on the flipped classroom content, please let us know; we’d love to hear what you’re thinking!
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OverDrive’s End of Year Sale: November 15th 2021-December 31st 2021

It’s been almost a month since the start of OverDrive’s big year-end sale, with just a few weeks left to go. If you purchase for your school or district’s Advantage account, you will want to take “advantage” of OverDrive’s biggest sale of the year with up to 50% off on over 160,000 titles through December 31st.
Sale titles include both eBooks and Audiobooks, and you can browse for titles through several different collections put together by experts at OverDrive, such as 2021 Releases, Diverse Reads, Staff Picks, and more! You can also search for titles by access level, format, and/or by genre!
Log in to Marketplace for more information.
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The WSDLC project managers and the team at OverDrive are always available if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
Not sure who to contact? Check out this handy guide on the WSDLC website:  https://wsdlc.org/who-to-contact-with-questions/.