Weekly Message: November 19th, 2024

Happy Tuesday all! This week’s message includes important notes on the new Content Access Levels, particularly on Advantage-owned titles for districts. We’re also sharing the details for this-week-only’s 50% off Diary of a Wimpy Kid titles sale from OverDrive, and the details for this month’s Flipped Classroom: Purchasing. And then we wind down this message with a reminder/call for submissions to the WSDLC’s two different sharing opportunities: the WSDLC Member Causerie and Tiny Case Studies.
We’ll take a break from these messages next week so we don’t add to inboxes as everyone prepares for a shortened week, and we’ll see you all again in December!

New Content Access Levels: Content CAL Adjustments

Last month, the previous three collections of materials were split into five collections:

  • Lower Elementary (K-2) Collection: This includes content that has been rated for grades PreK-2.
  • Upper Elementary (3-5) Collection: This includes content that has been rated for grades 3-5, and also includes access to the K-2 content.
  • Middle School (6-8) Collection: This includes content that has been rated for grades 6-8, and also includes access to the K-2 and 3-5 content.
  • Lower High School (9-10) Collection: This includes content that has been rated for grades 9-10, and also includes access to the K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 content.
  • Upper High School (11-12) Collection: This includes content that has been rated for grades 11-12, and also includes access to the K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-10 content.

With these new collections comes a little bit of clean-up, especially for titles that were in the previous K-5/Juvenile and 9-12/Adult collections. The WSDLC’s Collection Development Policy states that consortium-owned titles are placed in these collections based on their ratings from professional review sources such as School Library Journal, Kirkus and CCBC Choices. WSDLC member districts/school have the option to purchase their own copies of titles, referred to as Advantage purchasing or Advantage titles, and can place their Advantage copies into any collection/CAL of their choosing.

When the new Content Access Levels were being implemented, titles in the Juvenile and Adult collections that were right on the cusp between the new Lower- and Upper- Elementary and the new Lower- and Upper- High School collections were placed in the Upper- collection until they could be reviewed. OverDrive staff have been going through these CALs in the shared collection, and are moving titles from the Upper- collections into their Lower- counterparts when review sources indicate they can be.
However, OverDrive staff are not adjusting the CALs of Advantage titles; Schools/Districts are responsible for reviewing/adjusting CALs of their Advantage-owned materials. OverDrive only has the permissions to adjust CALs for the shared collection, plus since districts can place titles into any CAL at any time, OverDrive staff wouldn’t know if a title is included in a certain CAL because of the updates or because the school chose to put a title in a particular CAL/collection.

To summarize:

What to Do If You Find a Title That Should Be Placed in a Different CAL/Collection:

  • Consortium Titles: OverDrive is making these updates. If you notice any titles that should be in a different Content Access Level/Collection, please complete this form to alert OverDrive staff: WSDLC Title Content Access Level Update Request.

    Note: Titles in your Advantage collection may be set differently than the consortium. Please check ownership of the title before completing the form.

  • Advantage Titles: Schools are responsible for updating the CALs on their Advantage-owned Titles. This is done in Marketplace with the Content Access Level tool:
    1. Log in to OverDrive Marketplace
    2. From the top-menu ribbon, Select Admin, then Content access levels
    3. Search for the title(s) you want to edit if you have something specific in mind; otherwise adjust Period Type to “specific” and leave the date fields blank to return a list of all titles.
    4. Click on the Edit button (pencil icon) to adjust the title’s CAL in your Advantage collection.
    This very helpful video from OverDrive covers this full process in detail, too. Note: The video references CALs that are different than in the WSDLC; but the process is the same.

Need help identifying the titles that might need a review by you or another staff members? The WSDLC’s always-amazing Digital Content Specialist at OverDrive, Beth Saxton, has your back! Just reach out to wsdlc@overdrive.com, and Beth will generate a report that shows the current Content Access Level and lowest reviewed grade for their collection. Schools would then be able to use filters in Excel to identify books and change them in the CAL tool in Marketplace.

Not only that, but Beth also has a quick-hack for schools to identify titles if they can’t go book by book: “As a general note on Consortium/Advantage owned titles: if an Advantage-owned title has a different CAL than in the consortium, the lower CAL wins. For example, if your school has set all the elementary books to Upper Elementary, younger students will still see anything set for Lower Elementary in the consortium (which is going to be most things a school has). So, setting all elementary books to Upper Elementary should work as a quick precaution while still letting younger students see their books.”

If you would like to adjust your district’s access, or if you have any questions about the new CALs, please reach out to the WSDLC team at OverDrive at wsdlc@overdrive.com.

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From OverDrive: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Title Sale! (50% off!)

It’s happening again! in December 2023, OverDrive held a sale on the always-popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid titles by Jeff Kinney- and this week-long sale is back on!
The first 18 titles in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series are 50% off in the OC/OU lending model this week only (through 11/24)! These copies will never expire from your collection. Shop the titles here!

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Flipped Classroom: Purchasing

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 are 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 on their own and OverDrive staff are ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer members’ questions.

November 1st began the third topic in our Flipped Classroom Training Series: Purchasing! In this Flipped Classroom, you’ll get an inside look at how titles are selected and purchased for the Consortium. You’ll also find more details on how to purchase titles for your Advantage account: learn how to build and manage carts, add content credit, adjust the content access level for your purchases, and read some tips and tricks on how to avoid accidentally purchasing titles more than once (when you don’t necessarily mean to).

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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Reminder: Two Ways to Share Your WSDLC Experience(s)

The WSDLC is more than just a resource to enhance digital content offerings to Wisconsin students- it’s an opportunity for K12 library staff to connect, share ideas, and crowdsource best practices. And with that, WSDLC Project Managers have come up with two ways for WSDLC members to highlight and showcase some of the work they’ve done:

  • A member spotlight- called the WSDLC Member Causerie– which is a brief interview with a WSDLC member library staffer; and
  • The WSDLC’s Tiny Case Studies– which are brief, practical summaries of outstanding things that some WSDLC members are doing that involve Sora.

Be sure to check out both of these opportunities to share something about yourself and your district, and some major (or minor!) wins that your school has accomplished with the WSDLC!

WSDLC Member Causerie
The WSDLC Member Causerie is a brand new opportunity for staff at WSDLC member districts to share a little bit about themselves, their school, their discoveries and processes with Sora, and ways they’ve gotten their students, colleagues, parents, and/or other stakeholders engaged with their digital materials in Sora.

Fill out this form– completing as much, or as little, as you are comfortable- and be featured in an upcoming weekly newsletter!

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/.

WiLS Team