Happy Tuesday! It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and we have compiled the shared collection’s usage statistics from last month. With a new month comes a new Flipped Classroom topic, along with another Tiny Case Study! We’re also resharing an announcement on more Magazines and Comics coming to the collections in December, and a reminder on a DPI-hosted webinar that many of you may find helpful!

October’s Usage Statistics

The total number of checkouts last month has set a new record, blowing past May 2022’s and May 2023’s record-breaking checkouts with gusto! October 2023 had 183,467 checkouts, surpassing May 2023’s record-breaking checkout total by 16,029 checkouts! (Curious as to why May, of all months, should have the highest amount of checkouts? It’s because of the Reach More Readers Challenge that we’ve hosted the past two years, which reminds students of the WSDLC collections and encourages summer reading.)

This expanding usage may not come as too big of a surprise to those of you keeping track at home: the WSDLC has added access for more than 61,000 Wisconsin students since last April. And with over 400,000 students having access to the materials in the shared collections, you might be thinking about the effect this is having on how long students wait for the titles they want to read. Another not-so-surprising statistic for this month is that hold wait times have not been affected, and the current average wait period is a steady 15 days– the length of one checkout period! This is thanks to many things, like a healthy consortium collections budget, a top-tier Digital Content Librarian at OverDrive who keeps a close watch on titles that are in high demand, member districts [who are able to] making Advantage purchases, and users who utilize early returns.

You can view the full calendar year’s statistics, which includes detailed information on circulation numbers, holds, and other metrics, broken down by month, as a Google Sheet here.
If you’re interested in historical data, you can find .xlsx spreadsheets of past statistics at the bottom of the WSDLC Year to Date Statistics page.

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Flipped Classrooms: Advantage Accounts & Marketplace

What is a WSDLC Flipped Classroom?
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.

November’s theme is Advantage Accounts & Marketplace! This flipped classroom introduces the Advantage program and shows how users how they can use Marketplace to make the most of their Advantage accounts. Learn about Lending Models, adjusting the Content Access Level for your Advantage titles, make the most out of Class Sets, and so much more!

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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In Case You Missed It: New Comics and Magazines Coming Soon!

On December 1st, new titles will be added to both the Magazines collection and the All Access Comics collection! From the links and table below, you can view what new titles that will be available soon:

Comics*:

Juvenile Collection
Young Adult Collection
Adult Collection

Magazines:

*All titles are listed at their preassigned Content Access Levels. Prior to these titles going live, the WSDLC’s Digital Content Librarian will be assessing each title against the WSDLC’s Collection Development Policy, and will update Content Access Levels as appropriate.

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Tiny Case Studies: Graphic Novel Genre Study During Schoolwide Literacy Period

We have another Tiny Case Study to share with you all this month: Graphic Novel Genre Study During Schoolwide Literacy Period, submitted by WSDLC Board Member, Stephanie Judge!
Description: “The Sauk Prairie Middle School has a 35 minute period each day called Schoolwide Literacy. We drop everything and each teacher reads to class for 20 minutes and then students read to self for 15 minutes. In January, we establish genre groups and students select their preferred genre focus. As I teacher, I selected to lead the graphic novel genre group. The problem: How do you display a graphic novel and read it out loud to 20-25 students at the same time?”

What Are Tiny Case Studies?
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.
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 book club, 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 own 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!
You can view all of the WSDLC’s Tiny Case Studies here.

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(Reminder) In the Community: WEMTA Professional Development Webinar Budgeting Strategies & the Common School Fund

This coming Thursday, November 9th at 6:30pm, DPI’s Monica Treptow will be hosting a discussion on Budgeting Strategies & the Common School Fund! A panel of Library Media Specialists from Wisconsin schools will join Monica in this discussion.

Click here to learn more and to register.
The cost for this webinar is $15 for WEMTA non-members; free for WEMTA members.
Not a WEMTA member? Find out how to join here.

You can find out more about WEMTA’s Professional Development series here.

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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/.