Happy Tuesday! In today’s message, we have news on an update in Sora that we could not be more excited about! Also in today’s message are the details for March’s Flipped Classroom topic, a handy list of resources to help inspire ways to promote the WSDLC collections at your schools, and more.
From OverDrive: Searching For Your School at Login is Now Live!
This has been a big ask from WSDLC members, and we are so excited to announce that with the latest update in Sora, you can now search for your home school at the WSDLC Sora login page! Not only that, direct linking to your school’s login page is now available, too!
From the WSDLC’s Account Manager Lena Richardson:
This update also includes the ability to link directly to a school’s login page from the drop down menu! Now you can copy and share a specific URL with students, expediting the login process.
Once you have selected your school/district name from the list, copy that link and share it with students. Note that you can’t deep link your exact login screen (for example, your Google sign-in screen), but rather your specific school URL in the Sora login process (see image below).
Thank you to everyone who shared feedback of the login process that’s helped us improve Sora!
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Flipped Classrooms: Final Day for Managing Holds; Purchasing Begins Tomorrow!
February focused on Managing Holds, which included tips on how to make the most of your Advantage purchases, and looked 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!
For March, we’ll be taking a look at Purchasing! In this Flipped Classroom, you’ll get an inside look at how titles are selected and purchased for the Consortium. You’ll also find more details on how to purchase titles for your Advantage account: learn how to build and manage carts, add content credit, adjust the content access level for your purchases, and read some tips and tricks on how to avoid accidentally purchasing titles more than once (when you don’t necessarily mean to).
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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FAQ: What are some ways I can promote the WSDLC collections?
Looking for inspiration on how you can get the word out to your students and colleagues on using Sora? We’ve got you covered! There is a dedicated section of the WSDLC website that is just filled with resources for this exact purpose: the Marketing and Promotion Resources page. On this page, you can find print-ready bookmarks (plus a bookmark file that can be edited to include your school’s branding), informational half-sheets, messaging templates, flyers, and a link to OverDrive’s promotional resources page. Materials are also separated for their target groups: there are sections for information for students, educators, and parents!
In October 2021, we opened a Member Idea Exchange document for members to share their success stories in raising awareness and increasing their school’s use of Sora. Several great ideas were added to this document, many of which are about marketing strategies!
If you have any promotional resources or ideas that can be adapted for schools across the state, please share them with the WSDLC member community through the wsdlc-members@wils.org listserv! Anything that gets shared here will also be added to the Marketing and Promotion Resources page. (We already have some great member-created content here!)
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Watch Your Inboxes: WSDLC Board Nominations Are Sending Soon!
In just two weeks, we will be sending out a call to all WSDLC Member Representatives for nominations to be on the WSDLC Board! There are two seats coming up for election this year: CESA 9 and CESA 11.
If you are from one of these two CESAs and are your district’s WSDLC Member Representative*, please consider nominating yourself, or even a colleague from CESA 9 or 11!
*Each participating district has one designated Member Representative. This Member Representative will be eligible to vote and to be nominated to serve on the Board. The representative may be a library media specialist, curriculum expert, technology consultant, or administrator. If you aren’t sure who your district’s Member Representative is, or if you would like to designate someone else as your district’s Member Representative, reach out to the Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
About the WSDLC Board: The WSDLC is governed by a Board consisting of members of the consortium and representatives from the partners (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, and all meetings are online. A total commitment of around 7 hours per year is expected.
You can find out more in the WSDLC Board Operational Guidelines.
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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 2023’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/.
