Happy Tuesday everyone! The end of the school year is quickly approaching, and this week’s message is the penultimate weekly message for 2024-25. We’ll largely sign off for the summer after next week (for the weekly messaging, that is), but we’ll still be in touch with any big updates, and the Project Managers and the OverDrive team will be around all summer if you have any questions or run in to any issues. We’ll also send out a mid-summer message in early July that will include summer-so-far usage stats; the Reach More Readers Challenge winners; and whatever else crops up in the coming weeks that we might be itching to share.
But looking at this week’s message: we have last month’s usage statistics, as well as information and the recording link to last week’s WSDLC Membership Meeting. And we wrap up this email with a few end-of-year reminders.
Have a lovely week ahead!

May’s Usage Statistics

The final full month of the school year has wrapped up, and let us say WOW! WSDLC member students have used Sora more in May than any time period before, with all sorts of records being smashed once again!

• Checkouts: During May 2025, WSDLC member students checked out 290,017 materials! That is over 34k more than the previous recording-holding month (April 2025’s 255,470 checkouts).
• Unique Users: Last month, 51,267 total students checked out at least item! That’s over 3,000 additional students utilizing Sora than the previous record-holding month (January 2025’s 47,903 students).
• New Users: Okay, so this one isn’t a new record (Septembers, Octobers, and a few Novembers of the past four years hold these records tightly), but it’s still something worth celebrating: 5,011 students that were completely new to Sora checked out at least one title as well!

Could the 2025 edition of the Reach More Readers Challenge have something to do with these impressive stats, and students familiarizing themselves with the collections available to them before the head out for summer break? We think so! (Speaking of the Reach More Readers Challenge: We’re tallying usage and calculating percentages, and we’ll be reaching out to the winners this summer!)

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.

Will Students Be Able to Access WSDLC Collections/Sora Through the Summer?

We get this question a few times each May, and we always so excited to reply with a hearty you betchya! The WSDLC collections and Sora are available year-round, and can be accessed just about anywhere and from any device that can connect to the internet: desktop computers to smartphones; dial-up to wifi; the local public library to grandma’s house; and everything in between!

If students are on the move and/or without a stable internet connection, as long as they have a few minutes of internet connection, they can download titles for offline reading or send a title to an ereader! Below are some how-to instructions and short videos from OverDrive on some ways students can access titles offline:

• How-To Instructions on Downloading Checked Out Titles
• Video Walkthrough on Downloading Checked Out Titles
• How-To Instructions on How to Send Ebooks to a Kindle
• Video Walkthrough on How to Send Ebooks to a Kindle

Who to Contact for [topic]- WSDLC Project Managers or the WSDLC OverDrive Team?

This is a fantastic question, and one that we’ve started see a little more often lately.
WSDLC Members can find a breakdown of common topics and who they can reach out to on the WSDLC website: Who to Contact with Questions; but the short of it is:
WSDLC Project Managers for consortium/membership topics (renewals, invoicing, contact updates, etc) – wsdlc-info@wils.org
WSDLC OverDrive Team for Sora, Marketplace, purchasing, and access/authentication topics – wsdlc@overdrive.com

End-of-Year-Reminder: wsdlc-members Listserv Group

All WSDLC Main Contacts are added to the WSDLC Member Google Community/Listserv.
This listserv is used in a variety of ways:

WSDLC’s Weekly Messaging
Every Tuesday during the school year (well, almost every Tuesday), the WSDLC Project Managers send out a message to WSDLC members to keep you all up-to-date with what’s happening in the consortium: upcoming webinars, usage statistics, updates to OverDrive/Sora, events around the state, and so much more.

If you’ve watched the 2025 Annual Membership Meeting, you’ll know that starting in August 2025, we’ll be reducing these messages from weekly to bi-monthly.

Updates, Announcements, and General Information
Through this email list, WSDLC Project Managers also share exciting and important updates on happenings in the WSDLC. While announcements will always end up in the Weekly Message, sometimes an update warrants its very own message. We’ll also send out messages separate from the Weekly Message to call for volunteers to serve on a WSDLC committee or the WSDLC Board; requests to complete surveys; a condensed version of WSDLC Board Meetings; and updates to OverDrive, Sora, and/or the WSDLC Collections.

But most importantly, this listserv is about…
Connecting WSDLC Members to Each Other
Any member of this group can also utilize this listserv for anything related to the WSDLC- use it to ask questions, crowdsource ideas, spread the word on interesting/relevant news, or share your successes and/or locally created WSDLC promotional materials. Compose your message and send it to wsdlc-members@wils.org; from there, you will reach the entire WSDLC Community.
When sending to the listserv, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Include direct, clear subject lines that reflect the conversation. Make it easy for people to know if they want to read your message. If the topic of conversation changes, the subject line should change, too.
• Include a signature block. You know who you are, but others may not. Please include your name, library name, and contact information at the bottom of each list.
• This is not a venue for commercial sales; please, no pitches for new products or sale announcements. Individual libraries are welcome to sell or give away library supplies of potential use to others.
• Be respectful. This is a positive, comfortable place for everyone.

Anyone designated as their school’s/district’s Main Contact is automatically added to the WSDLC-members group, but any staff member at your school can be a part of it too! Send a message to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org with the email address(es) to be added, and we’ll take it from there.