Happy Tuesday everyone!
FAQ: How can I recommend for a title to be purchased for the WSDLC shared collection?
Sora does not include a title recommendation feature, so when you discover a title (or many titles) that you would like added to the shared collection, or if you get requests from your students and staff for titles to be added, what do you do? Well, wonder no more! The WSDLC website includes a form that library media specialists, educators, and others at participating schools and districts can fill out to suggest a title for purchase for the shared collection. Suggestions submitted through this form are collected by the WSDLC Project Managers, and are then are reviewed against the WSDLC Selection Policy (Section C of the Collection Policy). If the suggested title matches this policy, and is available for purchase through OverDrive Marketplace, the title will be added to the collection.
You can access the Suggest a Title for WSDLC form on the Collection Information page of the WSDLC website, or directly through this link: https://forms.gle/5zgD2SSd8NJPnncZ9
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Coming Soon: New Member Webinar
Join OverDrive Account Manager Lena Richardson and Account Executive Connie Bowman on Tuesday February 22nd at 3:00pm as they host an hour-long webinar exploring the WSDLC collections in Sora and Marketplace! This webinar will be directed towards new members, but is open to all WSDLC members. If you began your membership after September 2022, or if you are a veteran member who would like a refresher or have new staff who could benefit from a walkthrough, register today!
When: Feb 22, 2022, 03:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Topic: OverDrive & WSDLC Training
Register in advance for this webinar:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
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Watch Your Inboxes: The Annual Membership Survey & WSDLC Board Nominations Are Sending Soon
Be on the lookout over the next several weeks for some important messaging from the WSDLC!
Within the next couple of weeks we will be sending out our annual survey for all members to complete. This survey will ask which collections your school is accessing and your satisfaction with these collections, what you would like to see more/less of, how support from WSDLC project managers and OverDrive staff has been, your marketing strategies, and of course, your thoughts: what do you love, what is a pain point, and what kinds of updates would you like to see from Sora in the future.
Coming in March, we will also send out a call to all WSDLC Member Representatives for nominations to be on the WSDLC Board!
Seats that are coming up for election this year are: CESA 1, CESA 4, CESA 6, CESA 7, CESA 10, CESA 11, CESA 12, and three At-Large seats. To be considered for the WSDLC Board, you must be from a participating district, and you must be the WSDLC Member Representative. (Not sure if you are the Member Rep for your school district? Reach out to the project managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org, and we can let you know!)
About the WSDLC Board: The WSDLC is governed by a Board consisting of members of the consortium and representatives from the partners (CESA Purchasing, CESA Statewide Network, DPI, and WILS). Each Board Member serves a three-year term, and there are no term limits. The WSDLC Board holds regular meetings 4-6 times per year. You can find out more in the WSDLC Board Operational Guidelines.
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Flipped Classroom: Managing Holds
February’s topic is freshly created, and focuses on managing holds, how to make the most of your Advantage purchases, and a look at some of the features and programs OverDrive and the WSDLC employ to get the books your students want in to their hands sooner. There is also an excellent marketing resource regarding holds created by one of our members!
Click this link to check out February’s Flipped Classroom: Managing Holds
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OverDrive’s School Stars is Open!
OverDrive’s global contest aimed to celebrate how schools promote Sora, named Schools Stars, opened for submissions on February 7th! If you’ve done any promotional work this school year (August 2021 – Time of entry), consider entering this contest! There are different categories to enter, and the prizes come in the form of content credit. From bulletin boards to videos; from to social media posts to classroom engagement; no accomplishment or action is too small to enter! You have until March 31st, 2022 to submit your entry.
Learn more about School Stars, here!
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Send Us Your Tiny Case Study Ideas!
WSDLC’s Tiny Case Studies are brief, practical summaries of outstanding things that some WSDLC members are doing that involve Sora and serve as an opportunity for members to share a WSDLC-related problem they had and how they solved it. We highlight these Tiny Case Studies during various Flipped Classroom months, but you can also view them all by clicking the following link or copy/pasting it into your browser: https://wsdlc.org/training/tiny-case-studies/.
If you’ve done something lately that you’d like to share with the WSDLC Community, let us know! Maybe you’ve put together some creative marketing, started a student reading bookclub, cleared a hurdle with getting students to team up for 2022’s Battle of the Books, engaged your school’s teachers on how they can utilize these resources in their classroom, or made a successful case for funding. No idea or accomplishment is too small!
You can submit your tiny case study idea by email at wsdlc-info@wils.org or complete the idea form, and we will reach out to you with the next steps!
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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/.
