Hello WSDLC members! It’s Tuesday, which means we’re bringing you another message to share updates, training materials, and opportunities that may of interest to you.
New Title Selections for Easy Advantage Ordering!
Every few months, the WSDLC’s dedicated Digital Content Specialist Librarian at OverDrive, Beth Saxton, identifies themes of titles in the shared collection and prepackages them into different sets/carts (based on Content Access Levels) that WSDLC Members can purchase for only their students, just by completing a quick Google form! No thinking about how to best leverage your budget, and no logging in to OverDrive Marketplace. Just a simple, straightforward way to get your students the titles they want most.
This quarter, Beth has preselected two fresh themes of titles: 2024’s Most Popular Titles & Hi-Lo Titles for Middle- and High- School!
When completing the order form(s), you’ll have the opportunity to specify in you’d like your purchase(s) to billed by invoice, issuing a PO, or by content credit that you already have deposited in your Advantage Account(s)– whatever works best for you!
Pulled off the digital shelves and bundled together in April 2024 is a list of 2024’s Most Popular Titles [so far]:
- Juvenile (K-5): Contains 21 titles*, for $502.42
*It’s worth adding that these titles have about 2,000 holds on them all together– so if you’re debating on where to start, this bundle would be a solid choice. - Young Adult (6-8): Contains 18 titles, for $493.43
- Adult (9-12): Contains 16 titles, for $493.88
Note:
- “High Demand” is determined as the audiobooks and ebooks that have the highest numbers of holds and checkouts within the shared collections.
- These lists are not customizable for ordering. Please reach out to the OverDrive team at wsdlc@overdrive.com for additional options.
When you’re ready to purchase one-, two-, or all three of these packages, reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers, and we’ll get you set up with the ordering form link.
Also curated in April 2024 is a list of never-expiring Hi-Lo titles for Middle School and High School:
- Young Adult (6-8): Contains 20 titles, for $292.44
- Adult (9-12): Contains 22 titles, for $295.1
Please note: These lists are not customizable for ordering. Please reach out to the OverDrive team at wsdlc@overdrive.com for additional options.
When you’re ready to purchase one or both of these packages, reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers, and we’ll get you set up with the ordering form link.
In January 2024, three prepackaged sets of high-demand titles were bundled together and are still available for purchase as well:
- Juvenile (K-5): Contains 53 titles, for $996.17
- Young Adult (6-8): Contains 19 titles, for $499.92
- Adult (9-12): Contains 18 titles, for $551.27
When you’re ready to purchase one-, two-, or all three of these packages, reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers, and we’ll get you set up with the ordering form link.
Save yourself time and money, and help get those high-interest, high-hold titles into the hands of your students faster by ordering today!
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Updates from OverDrive: New Read to Me Feature
Sora is just booming with updates and new features, and we have another to share with you that just went live last week!
Sora Read to Me Feature
Read to Me allows students to select a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph in an ebook and have the text read aloud. Customization tools like reading speed and volume controls let students tailor their experience to meet their unique reading needs. This update will download automatically, and to increase awareness of Read to Me, students will see an announcement the first time they open an ebook after the update.
With this new feature, students can also now hear pronunciations of words they define. Wherever a definition appears in Sora, students can select the speaker icon to hear the word pronounced.
You can learn more about Read to Me in this how-to video, this help article, and in a recent Blog Post. Your Sora team is also available to answer questions- just reach out to them at wsdlc@overdrive.com!
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Flipped Classrooms: Marketing!
April is our final month of the WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom training program, and it focuses on Marketing and Training! We know this is a hot topic for many of you, and we hope that the ideas and resources we’ve pulled together here can work as a jumping point to implement your own marketing strategies. Included are:
- Lists of marketing techniques and actions from other WSDLC members and from the OverDrive team;
- Links to the OverDrive blog’s school library marketing spotlight and previous School Stars winners;
- Downloadable/Printable flyers, bookmarks, social media images, a coloring page, and so much more that are free to use; and
- Training Modules from OverDrive that you can send to your students and teachers!
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’s Reach More Readers Challenge Begins Soon!
The Reach More Readers Challenge will be starting on May 1st!
What is the Reach More Readers Challenge?
Two years ago, the WSDLC and OverDrive began hosting a competition between all WSDLC member schools to encourage students to check out a title in Sora during the month of May, increasing their awareness of this resource before summer break begins. This challenge has been a huge hit- there was a 19% increase in usage in 2022, and a 12% in usage in 2023- so we’re running this challenge again this year!
The schools/districts that see the greatest increase in individual students checking out a title have the opportunity to win content credit (the never-expiring deposit of money that can be used to purchase additional title for only your students) or even some sweet Sora swag!
How Can My School/District Participate?
There’s nothing anyone needs to do to participate in 2024’s Reach More Readers Challenge: Every school that joined the WSDLC before March 1st, 2024 is automatically entered into this competition!
What you do need to do is spread the word to your students to have them log in to Sora and check out [at least] one title!
We’ll be comparing the number of individual students that checked out titles in March 2024 to the number in May 2024: The school district(s) that have seen the greatest increase in the number of students checking out materials in Sora between these two months will be declared the winner, and score some fabulous prizes!
WSDLC Project Managers will be sharing resources over the next couple of weeks for schools to utilize to help market the collections to students. If there is anything in particular that you would like to see, or if you have any resources that you’d like to share with the whole WSDLC community, let us know at wsdlc-info@wils.org, or share on this listserv!
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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Send Us Your 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. 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/.
