Hello Tuesday! In this week’s message, you’ll find details on a couple of exciting opportunities to help get your students [re]acquainted with, and using, Sora before summer break begins, an announcement on another huge milestone, and a recap of last week’s membership meeting.
WSDLC’s Reach More Reader’s Challenge is Happening Now!
In 2022, the WSDLC hosted a contest aimed at helping member schools market the WSDLC collections in their schools to help reach students before they depart for the summer. It went over so well (there was a 19% increase in usage that hasn’t slowed down), that we’re bringing it back again this year!
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 2023 will be declared the winner! Winners will receive some awesome prizes and a year’s-worth of bragging rights.
You can find more information and links to marketing materials, ideas, and QR Codes for curated collections on the WSDLC website.
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!
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The WSDLC has reached over 4 Million Checkouts!
We’ve done it! Since the WSDLC began in 2018, students at WSDLC member school districts have checked out over 4,000,000 titles!
The 4 Millionth checkout occurred on Thursday, May 11th, at 12:48pm.
The title that holds this honor is *drumroll* Trucks by Gary Sprott!
Just for fun, here are the other millionth checkouts through the years:
1,000,000th checkout: December 4th, 2020 with Hard Luck: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 8 by Jeff Kinney
2,000,000th checkout: November 22nd, 2021 with The Last Straw: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 3, by Jeff Kinney
3,000,000th checkout: September 29th, 2022 with Wrecking Ball: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 14, by Jeff Kinney
(Sorry Jeff Kinney fans. He almost took the 4,000,000 spot again, with Hard Luck coming in at the 3,999,999 spot.)
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New Materials Added: Comics, Magazines, and the Sora Sweet Reads Collection
Just yesterday, Monday May 15th, two sets of materials were added in to the WSDLC collections: additional Comics & Magazines, and Sora Sweet Reads!
Comics & Magazines
An XSLX spreadsheet that lists the new Magazine titles that were added can be downloaded by clicking this link. If you’d like to view a listing of the Comics that were just added in to the WSDLC collections, follow the links below:
*All titles in both the Magazines list and the Comics lists are shown at their preassigned Content Access Levels, which may be different than where the titles are found within the WSDLC Collections. As with all new titles added in to the shared collections, the WSDLC’s Digital Content Librarian has assessed each title against the WSDLC’s Collection Development Policy, and has updated Content Access Levels as appropriate.
Sora Sweet Reads
OverDrive’s annual summer reading program, Sora Sweet Reads, has begun! The Sora Sweet Reads collection is filled with simultaneous use titles for all reading levels, and will be available to all WSDLC members through August 17th.
You can find out more about this program, and grab some already-made marketing materials, on the Sora Sweet Reads page.
You can see this curated collection and share it out with your students with this link: https://soraapp.com/library/wsdlcwi/campaign-sora-sweet-reads-10410/titles
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Thank You for a Great Annual Membership Meeting!
Last week (Tuesday, May 9th), the annual WSDLC Membership Meeting took place, which was led by an impactful presentation by Christina Dorr.
Following Christina’s presentation, WSDLC Board Chair, Peg Billing, and the WSDLC Project Managers were thrilled to share with everyone that the WSDLC is still growing by leaps and bounds: There were over 1.2 million checkouts in 2022 and over 3 million checkouts (edging on 4 million) since the WSDLC began; there are more students than ever accessing the collections; and there were over 39,000 new copies/titles of materials purchased in 2022.
We also shared the results of the WSDLC Board Elections held just a few short weeks ago: there was one re-elected member, and one newly elected member. We also announced the three newly-selected members for the Selection Advisory Committee. New (and returning) Board and Selection Advisory Committees will begin their appointments with the start of the 2023 membership year on September 1st.
The meeting wrapped up with a look at the newly updated Board Operational Guidelines, an explanation of the 3-year membership pricing plan, and a quick overview of the WSDLC Membership Survey that closed earlier this spring.
If you missed the 2023 Membership Meeting, you can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/e3bVr2EYiMg
Links that were shared during the presentation, as well as the presentation slides, can be found below:
WSDLC Membership Meeting Slides
WSDLC Board Operational Guidelines
2023 WSDLC Membership Survey Report
Thank you again for another great year in the WSDLC!
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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/.
