February’s Usage Stats
As is the way of February, usage and the number of students utilizing Sora took a dip. But even though there weren’t as many individual students logging in and checking out titles, repeat users are right on par with January. Taking a peek at average users per day for each month this school year, we’re starting to see fairly consistent usages over these past two months:
- September 2024 had an average of 3,407 users per day.
- October 2024 had an average of 4,240 users per day.
- November 2024 had an average of 3,770 users per day.
- December 2024 had an average of 3,096 users per day.
- January 2025 had an average of 4,383 users per day.
- February 2025 had an average of 4,388 users per day.
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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The Annual WSDLC Membership Survey is Open!
The 2025 WSDLC Member Survey is open for your feedback! This annual survey is open to school staff at participating WSDLC school districts, and serves as an opportunity for member schools and districts to provide valuable feedback to the WSDLC Board and Project Managers: what do you love about the WSDLC and Sora; how is your school/district using the collections; do you have any pain points; and what kinds of updates would you like to see from Sora and the WSDLC in the future.
And this year, as a thank you for your time and feedback, everyone who completes the survey will be entered in a drawing to win one of three Sora (navy blue) hooded sweatshirts! (We also want to take a moment to shoutout the WSDLC team at OverDrive for donating the prizes- thank you!)
You can access the survey by reaching out to the WSDLC Project Managers for the link at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
Your responses by Friday, March 21st, 2025 will be greatly appreciated. The survey should take at most 15 minutes to complete.
Thank you again for your time and thoughts.
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Flipped Classroom: Curation
March is Curation month for the WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom training series! In this Flipped Classroom, you can learn all about Curation in OverDrive/Sora and how you can create and post your very own curated collections to support your students’ needs and interests.
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: The Annual WEMTA Conference is Next Week!
WEMTA’s annual conference is next week, March 9th – 11th! This year, the WSDLC Project Managers couldn’t make it (we’re so bummed!), however both WiLS and OverDrive will have booths in the exhibit hall! Come by to WiLS booth to learn more about the WSDLC from WiLS staff, as well as WiLS’ other offerings and the [free] online resource Recollection Wisconsin. Then head on over to the OverDrive booth to say “hi” to their team and learn about some tips and tricks that you can utilize in your WSDLC Advantage Account!
While you’re attending WEMTA, join OverDrive for two sessions that will help WSDLC members make the most of their Sora experience and support students:
- Leveling up your Sora promotion – Engage students with digital reading (Link)
Monday March 10th | 8:45am – 9:45am
In today’s digital age, students can be overwhelmed with the amount of online resources available to them. How do we get their attention and engage them in digital reading? Join us for a session aimed at helping you increase Sora’s visibility and usage in your school. Your Sora expert will provide practical strategies and tips for promoting Sora effectively. You’ll also get access to ready-to-use resources and hear case studies about educators who have successfully engaged their communities with Sora. Don’t miss this chance to enhance your digital library promotion and make the most of Sora in your school. - TeachingBooks and Sora: Better Together with TeachingBooks’ Kym Davick (Link)
Monday March 10th | 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Discover how ebooks and audiobooks can help support your school’s unique curriculum needs. From ELA favorites to digital class sets and more, let OverDrive Account Manager, Lena Rose and TeachingBooks Implementation Specialist, Kym Davick, fill you in on how the Sora reading app combined with TeachingBooks resources can help set your students up for required reading success. Attendees will learn the benefits of creating school-specific digital collections and how powerful Sora tools like notes, highlights, definitions reading data are making a positive impact on reading engagement, as well as how to find the resources for your Sora Books on TeachingBooks as you hook readers, prepare lessons, or plan for books groups.
TeachingBooks is provided to all Wisconsin schools, public libraries, universities and residents through BadgerLink, Wisconsin’s Online Library funded by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
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In Case You Missed It: Updates from OverDrive
Updates to OverDrive’s K12/Sora Resource Center
The K12 Resource Center has a new look and there are more materials available in OverDrive’s Marketing Materials for promoting to your students and their grown-ups. You can read all about this updates and changes in yesterday’s OverDrive Blog post.
New Reading Goals Available for Students in Sora
Within Sora, students can now set reading goals, hit milestones based on these goals (instead of milestones based solely on reading streaks), and review their real-time reading data to help encourage them to keep going! Students can enable Reading Goals in their Sora account.
Note: Reading Goals are optional and are enabled at the individual student level. This how-to video and these Sora Help articles provide step-by-step instructions.
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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/.
