Happy Tuesday! This week’s message is a tad longer than usual, but includes helpful resources and reminders: from last month’s consortium-wide stats to a helpful how-to on how districts can run their own local stats; details on the upcoming WSDLC Membership Meeting to the Reach More Readers Challenge; and easy Advantage purchasing to renewal and contact reminders.
April’s Usage Statistics
As you may remember, March saw a little dip in usage across the consortium, but April has bounced back with gusto!
Looking back two months ago, March had 166,120 checkouts from 35,972 students. April on the other hand had 204,212 total checkouts from 38,573 students. What an increase in usage!
(By the way, if you love these graphs as much as we do- which is a lot- read on in this week’s message to find out more about how you can easily and quickly generate these for your own school/district from the Sora Activity Report in Marketplace!)
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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FAQ: How Can I Find My District’s/School’s Usage Stats?
With the school year starting to wind down, many WSDLC members are wanting to run their own end-of-year usage reports on just how much and how often their students are using the WSDLC collections in Sora. And to help you all find your school’s usage, and to let you know which of the many available reports will get you the most relevant and eye-popping data, Lena Richardson, WSDLC’s OverDrive Account Executive, has put together this super handy how-to!
WSDLC Stats How ToIf you have any questions about running your reports, please reach out to wsdlc@overdrive.com
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Reminders:
Update Your Address Books: Connie Bowman is No Longer at OverDrive
As of April 3rd, Connie Bowman is no longer at OverDrive and her email address (cbowman@overdrive) will be getting shut down soon. When reaching out to the WSDLC team at OverDrive, please make sure you are emailing wsdlc@overdrive.com- this will get you the entire team, and they will be able to reach out to you quickly to answer any questions, solve any issues, and provide expert guidance.
2024-25 WSDLC Membership Renewals: Reminders Sending Later Today
Later this afternoon, the WSDLC Project Managers will be resending price quotes and renewal information to all WSDLC Members Main Contacts who either:
a) Haven’t responded yet (renewal confirmations are due on August 31st; if we haven’t heard from your district by this date, your district will be automatically renewed), or
b) Have requested access updates and need to sign and return an updated OverDrive Agreement. To guarantee that your requested updates are able to be implemented before September 1st, updated OverDrive Agreements should be returned before August 1st.
If you haven’t received your 2024-25 WSDLC Membership quote or if you have any questions about your WSDLC membership, please reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
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WSDLC’s Annual Reach More Readers Challenge is on Now!
We’re already through the first week of May, which means we’re also through the very first week of the Reach More Readers Challenge, and the number of individual students checking out titles is already barreling towards a new monthly record! After just 6 full days, there have already been over 17,000 students across Wisconsin exploring Sora and finding an ebook, audiobook, and/or magazine to checkout. At this rate, there could easily be nearing (or even exceeding- but we don’t want to put the cart before the horse) 50,000 of Wisconsin’s students getting [re]acquainted with digital materials before they begin their summer break!
What is the Reach More Readers Challenge?
The Reach More Readers Challenge is a friendly competition between all WSDLC Member districts/schools to encourage students to check out materials from Sora ahead of summer break.
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 isn’t a sign up to be a part of 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!
How Can I Get Students to Check Out Materials?
Getting students to access Sora and checkout titles is entirely up to you: use tried-and-true methods that have worked in your school/district in the past, or try out something new! Schedule classroom time if you can and give a brief demo and tour to you students; use Sora ebooks in story times; download Sora Coloring Pages from OverDrive and print them with access instructions on the back for your youngest students to take home and share with their grownups; add QR codes that link directly to popular titles or to curated collections to bulletin boards, fliers, or handouts; post Sora links to your social media page(s). It’s cliche to say, but still so true: the possibilities are endless!
You can find more information and links to pre-made marketing materials, gain ideas, and even download ready-made 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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2024’s Annual WSDLC Membership Meeting is Next Week!
The Annual WSDLC Membership Meeting is one week away! Register today and receive a reminder the day-beforehand. Can’t make it? This meeting will be recorded and sent to all registrants.
Date: Tuesday, May 14th
Time: 3:45pm – 4:45pm
Registration Link: Reach out to wsdlc-info@wils.org for registration info!
Description: This year’s meeting will host three WSDLC Member speakers who will share how they’ve utilized their WSDLC Membership and engaged their students. Following these presentations, Sara and Rebecca will share a recap from 2023- including some really impressive usage stats- and provide a peek into the future of what is to come.
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In Case You Missed Them: Title Lists 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 bundles/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.
When completing the order form(s) below, you’ll have the opportunity to specify if you’d like your purchase(s) to be 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!
April 2024’s High-Demand Title Bundles
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
Hi-Lo Titles for Middle School and High School (April 2024)
Young Adult (6-8): Contains 20 titles, for $292.44
Adult (9-12): Contains 22 titles, for $295.1
January 2024’s High-Demand Title Bundles
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
Notes:
“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.
Please reach out to wsdlc-info@wils.org for more information on the titles lists and on how to easily order these bundles!
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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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/.
