Hello Tuesday! The WSDLC Project Managers are out of the office today, but we’re still bringing you our usual weekly updates of announcements, reminders, and general consortium information~
Join Us Today at SLATE!
The annual SLATE (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education) Conference is this week (December 5th-7th) at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, and the WSDLC Project Managers and OverDrive’s Connie Bowman will be in the exhibit hall all day today (Tuesday, Dec 6th)!
For those of you attending, we’d love to see you! Please stop by the WiLS/WSDLC booth (#600) to chat with the Project Managers about the shared collection, have your questions answered, and grab some sweet WiLS birthday swag! Also make sure to head on over to the Sora/OverDrive booth (#500) to say “Hi” to our very own Account Executive Connie Bowman, and also learn about what’s new, coming soon, and in development with OverDrive and Sora.
What is SLATE? SLATE is an annual conference hosted by Association of Wisconsin School Administrators (AWSA), the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA), and Wisconsin Educational Technology Leadership (WETL). This year’s conference includes 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, focusing on technology in schools and advancements that can be used in the classroom to help students succeed.
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November’s Usage Statistics
In 2020 and 2021, circulation totals dropped between October and November, but 2022 broke that pattern: October 2022 had 139,481 total checkouts, while November 2022 saw total checkouts reach 140,258. Not only is that an increase of 777 checkouts, but it’s also the 2nd-highest number of checkouts in a single month. (May 2022 takes the number one spot, with 163,308 checkouts.) WOW!
Not only did the number of checkouts continue to increase, but the total number of students logging in and checking out books increased as well. Last month, 31,173 students used resources found in Sora through the WSDLC! This is the second-highest number of users in a given month, following behind May 2022’s total of 32,617 individual students.
Keep up the amazing work of promoting these collections, everyone!
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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Flipped Classrooms: Curation
December is Curation month for the WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom training series! In this Flipped Classroom, 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.
What are the WSDLC’s Flipped Classrooms?
The WSDLC offers a self-paced training series to help new members get oriented (and as a refresher for returning members) with their membership and the Sora collections. Every month, a different topic and set of materials are highlighted to help guide members throughout the school year. The content of these Flipped Classrooms is intended for Library Media Specialists and anyone else that may help to manage school/district library resources, OverDrive Advantage purchasing, and digital classroom materials. Materials are available for members to review independently, and OverDrive staff are ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer members’ questions.
You can find more information on WSDLC Training opportunities and materials here: https://wsdlc.org/training/
Find the full calendar of self-paced training topics here: https://wsdlc.org/training/wsdlc-training-schedule/
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WSDLC Annual Membership Meeting: Topic Suggestions
We want to hear from the WSDLC members on what topics or themes you would be most interested in hearing about at the next Annual Membership Meeting being held in May 2023. This meeting is an opportunity for the Project Managers to get feedback from members, to highlight the achievements and updates from the year, and to share what changes and updates may be coming soon. This meeting kicks off with a guest speaker or a panel of participants, all centered around a certain theme.
Please share your thoughts and ideas for 2023’s meeting in this Padlet before January 6th: WSDLC Annual Membership Meeting Topic Suggestions
Note about using Padlet: Padlet is completely free to use, but you do not need to create an account to submit your ideas or to comment on / show your support for others’ ideas. Any comments or suggestions made in our Padlet from users without an account will appear anonymously. If you want to avoid creating a Padlet account but wouldn’t like to be anonymous, go ahead and sign your name to your idea.
If you have an idea but want to use something other than Padlet, go ahead and email us your idea at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
Thank you very much!
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OverDrive’s End of Year Sale is Happening Now!
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 150,000 titles through December 31st.
Sale titles include both eBooks and Audiobooks, and you can browse sale titles through several different collections put together by experts at OverDrive, such as 2022 Releases, Audiobooks under $30, Fixed Layout & Read-Alongs, and more! You can also search for titles by access level, format, and/or by genre!
Log in to your Marketplace Account for more information, to view sale titles, and to expand your local collections with titles only your students will be able to access.
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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/.
