Congratulations on another great school year, and thank you all SO much for everything you do to teach and assist Wisconsin students!

Because we don’t want to flood your inboxes through the summer, this will be our final weekly message for a while. You will continue to receive emails for important updates to the WSDLC as they come up and monthly renewal reminders for schools/districts that haven’t responded yet. We will also send out another message akin to this in mid-June with general updates, usage stats, and other exciting happenings before restarting the weekly messaging at the end of July.

WSDLC Project Managers will be here all summer, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments!

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!

Last week (Tuesday, May 24), we held the annual WSDLC Membership Meeting. There was an excellent turnout, and we were thrilled to share with everyone that the WSDLC is still growing by leaps and bounds: There were over 1 million checkouts in 2021 and over 2 million checkouts since the WSDLC began, there are more students than ever accessing the collections, and there were over 46,000 new copies/titles of materials purchased in 2021. We also shared the results of the WSDLC Board Elections held this past Spring: there were 3 re-elected members, 4 newly elected members, 1 seat that will be vacant, 4 re-appointed members, and 1 newly appointed member. And we discussed what’s coming in the year ahead, including how we’re working with OverDrive to make updates to the Sora platform and consortium membership pricing. We are also excited to share that the updates and changes made to the Operational Guidelines were approved unanimously.

If you missed the 2022 Membership Meeting, you can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/8E5f-cIUJ4w

Links that were shared during the presentation, as well as the presentation slides, can be found below:

Operational Guidelines (Unanimously Approved)

Thank you again for another great year in the WSDLC!

● ● ●

WSDLC’s Account Executive Connie Bowman has created a 5-minute video full of great ideas, tips, and tricks that outlines the ways WSDLC members can leverage Sora for curriculum! This video covers getting the right books into students’ hands at the right time, personalization features, and dashboard reporting.

● ● ●

Sora Sweet Reads Is On!

You can find out more about this program on the Sora Sweet Reads page.

You can view the collection in Sora through this [shareable!] link: https://soraapp.com/library/wsdlcwi/campaign-sora-sweet-reads/page-1

● ● ●

Today is the final day for new students to log in to Sora, check out a title, and be counted towards your school’s new user growth (comparing March 2022 to May 2022).

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 has been 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 1 and May 31! 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.

We’ll announce the contest winners in June’s midsummer update email!

Thank you for your great work, and good luck!

● ● ●

Each year, WSDLC Project Managers receive a file of MARC records for all titles available in the collection, broken down by Juvenile, YA, and Adult.

This file has been posted to the WSDLC website, and can be found here: https://wsdlc.org/for-members/collection-information/

● ● ●

Members that use Google, Follett, ClassLink or User Login Manager will not be affected and can ignore this messaging.