Happy Tuesday! This week’s message has no shortage of exciting tidbits: from 2023’s usage stats to a FAQ answered; Community events to new shared-collection titles; there’s definitely something here to bring a little warmth to your day~
2023 Year in Review
Phew! Another year down, and another year of breaking records!
The results are in, and here are the final numbers on how usage of the WSDLC in January – December of 2023 turned out:
- 1,443,179 Total Checkouts
- 1,163,334 Ebooks were checked out
- 222,566 Audiobooks were checked out
- 57,279 Magazines were checked out
- 85% of all available titles circulated at least once
- Of the 20,563 titles that were available in 2023, 17,503 of them were checked out
- 108,692 Students checked out at least one title
- 99,178 titles/copies were purchased for the shared collections
- 62,002 copies of Ebooks were purchased
- 37,176 copies of Audiobooks were purchased
- A total of 286 Wisconsin school districts (public and private) enrolled as WSDLC members.
- This includes 1,069 individual schools, and 478,970 students
What a year! Every one of these stats is a significant increase over 2022’s usage, and we are so excited to see what the WSDLC will accomplish in 2024! (We’ll share comparisons to years-past during the Annual Membership Meeting, coming up in May.)
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In Case You Missed It: Hi-Lo Titles Added
Last week we announced the addition of new Hi-Lo titles that were added to the 6-8 and 9-12 collections, and we want to make sure you didn’t miss it! The titles are curated into two lists available via Sora, one for high school and one for middle school.
The title list is available here for your review and reference.
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WSDLC Training & Marketing Resources
If you’ve been looking to shake things up on how you can highlight your school’s Sora collections, or if you need a refresher yourself on Sora and the WSDLC collections, we’ve got you! Below is a highlight of the WSDLC’s and OverDrive’s Marketing and Training Resources; from on-demand webinars to printable coloring pages; one-on-one meetings with OverDrive staff to social media graphics; there is a little something to fit everyone’s needs.
- WSDLC Training Resources Page: This includes links to WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom/Self-Paced Training content, Webinars, Tiny Case Studies, and more. If you’re not quite sure how to find stats in Marketplace, or need a quick refresher on how to adjust students’ settings in Sora, this is the page to get you to the information you need.
- OverDrive’s K-12 School Staff Training: OverDrive provides a variety of training materials for library staff, teachers, students, and parents. This collection includes videos, self-paced modules, and training kits– something for every learning method!
- WSDLC Marketing and Promotion Resources Page: This includes printables and digital resources created by the WSDLC community that you can use, personalize, and share!
If you’ve created something that has been a hit at your school that you’d like to share with the WSDLC community, you can either reach out to the Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org, or you can share it directly with the community at wsdlc-members@wils.org! - OverDrive Resource Center: An ever-changing assortment of marketing and promotional resources for Sora, from OverDrive. Included are social media graphics, coloring pages, and so much more!
- Looking for marketing inspiration? Read past Sora Spotlight posts, browse through 2023’s Sora School Stars winners, and take a peek at what other WSDLC members have done in the Marketing & Engagement Member Idea Exchange document.
If you have ideas for materials or resources you think would be helpful to include in any of these pages, or if you have materials that you think could be helpful to the WSDLC community, please let us know at wsdlc-info@wils.org, and we’ll get it added!
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Flipped Classrooms: Usage Statistics
With a new month comes a new Flipped Classroom! January’s Flipped Classroom is Usage Statistics, where you will learn how to view your school’s and/or district’s usage statistics by utilizing Marketplace Insights. Insights is the area of your Marketplace account where you can run a variety of reports including, but certainly not limited to, the titles and formats that are getting checked out, what’s being purchased, how many holds are on titles, and how your students are interacting with Sora. You will also see how you can break down these reports to view usage at the consortium level, by only your school (Branch), or at the Advantage level.
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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In the Community: Navigating Challenges: What Districts Need to Know Webinar Hosted by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Library Services Team and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
On Thursday, February 1st from Noon to 1:00pm, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Library Services Team and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) is hosting a webinar covering challenges to materials in school library collections, and we want to make sure no one misses this opportunity.
Date: Thursday, February 1st
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Description: School districts are facing an unprecedented number of complaints about and challenges to materials in school library collections. This hour-long webinar for Wisconsin school district administrators, library media specialists, and other interested school district personnel will provide a brief overview of guiding legislation, key professional and legal principles, and essential school district policies and procedures related to curating library media collections and responding to concerns and challenges. This overview will be followed by an extended question-and-answer session, with registered attendees invited to submit questions prior to the event.
Presenters:
- Monica Treptow, School Library Media Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
- Megan Schliesman, Assistant Director, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, UW-Madison
- Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Director, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, UW-Madison
Registration: https://bit.ly/3STzZV2 (Registration closes on January 25th, 2024)
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FAQ: Is There A Template Message to Share With My Community WSDLC’s Record-Breaking Checkouts?
We’ve heard from OverDrive that they’ve recently been receiving requests for a templated message to share out the incredible usage of Sora. They took these requests to OverDrive’s PR team, and boy have they delivered!
Available here is an all-new template for WSDLC members to adapt and use to share out with their boards, communities, and anyone else, the usage and benefits of the WSDLC collections in Sora. Just download the .doc file and edit as needed!
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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/.
