Register for the Annual WSDLC Membership Meeting on Tuesday, May 24th!
Registration for the Annual WSDLC Membership meeting is open! This event will be held virtually on Tuesday, May 24th, from 3:30pm until 4:30pm.
We are very excited to welcome Jenny Kalvaitis and Kristen Whitson, co-authors of We Will Always Be Here: A Guide to Understanding LGBTQ+ Activism in Wisconsin as our guest speakers.
Jenny and Kristen wrote their book in honor of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ historical figures and events and to inspire future action. While the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice, it is up to us to do the bending: together, a bit at a time, every day. Kalvaitis and Whitson will discuss the struggles and successes of LGBTQ+ history in Wisconsin, sharing strategies for resilience and moments of hope for a more just, inclusive future. We will remember that we are not alone in this fight, we have each other, and we stand on the shoulders of generations of activists.
If you have any questions for the authors that you’d like to ask ahead of time, let us know by completing the form available here.
Following this discussion, attending members will be asked for their vote to approve the WSDLC’s Operational Guidelines, and Project Managers will provide highlights from the member survey that was completed earlier this spring, a WSDLC year in review, and what’s on the horizon for the consortium.
Further details, along with the draft of the 2022 Operational Guidelines and the full Membership Survey Report, will be shared later today!
You can register for the Annual Membership Meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIuf-qqqj4pGNMk-hZ0z6qJagjJdVuDJAqw
This event is open to everyone, so please feel free to share this link with others in your school or district who might be interested in attending this special event!
The meeting will be recorded and shared with all registrants.
We hope to see you there!
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WSDLC’s Reach More Readers Challenge is Going On Now!
The WSDLC is hosting a contest during the month of May to help member schools get Sora on their students’ radars before they depart for the summer!
Every school is automatically entered into this competition; all you need to do is spread the word and get as many students as you can to log in to Sora and check out [at least] one title between May 1st and May 31st! The school district(s) that have seen the greatest increase in the number of students checking out materials in Sora between March and May will be declared the winner! Winners will receive a package of Sora swag, which includes some comfy sweatshirts!
You can find more information on the Reach More Readers Challenge and links to marketing materials, ideas, and QR Codes for curated collections here.
So get ahead of the summer slide, increase awareness of the WSDLC collections, and maybe even score some Sora swag by encouraging your students to participate in a friendly competition with other schools across the state!
New Titles Added in April
In April, there were 121 completely new titles added to the shared collection! Eight of these titles were Audiobooks, with the remaining titles being Ebooks and Graphic Novels.
A .xlsx file of the complete list of all of the new titles added in April 2022, along with their format and content access level(s), can be found here.
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More Comics Next Week!
On May 16, additional titles will be automatically added to the WSDLC collections at no cost to the consortium. We are reviewing each title to ensure it has the correct content access level assigned to it.
Preview the All Access Comics additions by grade level:
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Item of Interest: Free Online Event in May:
Indigenous Voices: Authentic Children’s Literature in the Classroom and Library
The San Diego, CA County Office of Education is hosting a free online event on May 24th and 25th: Indigenous Voices: Authentic Children’s Literature in the Classroom & Library.
From the event page:
“Native authors scheduled to speak include Cynthia Leitich Smith, Angeline Boulley, Traci Sorell, Christine Day, Brian Young, David Robertson, and Michaela Goade, among others.”
You can find more details on the event and register to attend here: https://sdcoe.k12oms.org/900-215459
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May Updates from OverDrive
The WSDLC’s Account Executive Lena Richardson shared with us some great ideas on how to prepare for the summer, as well as other helpful reminders, and we want to make sure you didn’t miss any of them!
Summer Prep:
- Utilize Sora for your professional development with our PD Title sale
- Need titles/content for summer school?
- Send me your title list for a quote!
- Create a curation Sora of ebook/audiobook versions of your summer reading list!
- Send me your summer reading list and we can create a cart and curation for you!
- Offer a variety ebooks, comics, manga, audiobooks, magazines, etc
- Reach out to me for pricing
- Set up a Sora Showcase display in your library or other school common areas for students to browse prior to summer break
- Encourage your students to participate in AudioFile SYNC, a free summer audiobook program for ages 13+
- Register here: https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/sync/
- Promote Sora Sweet Reads with the available marketing kit
- Late sign up ends June 15th if you are not yet participating
Looking forward to next school year…
Schedule a training session/touch base with me before both of our schedules fill up in August and September! I will also be available all summer to meet.
Friendly Reminder: Have extra library budget you’re not sure what to do with? Do you need to use it or lose it? OverDrive’s content credit never expires! Consider depositing your extra funds into your Marketplace account to provide more access to digital content for your students.
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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/.
