Get Ready for the Reach More Reader’s Challenge!
The WSDLC is hosting a contest aimed at helping member schools market the WSDLC collections in their schools to help reach students before they depart for the summer! Every school is automatically entered into this competition; all you need to do is spread the word and get as many students as you can to log in to Sora and check out [at least] one title between May 1st and May 31st! The school district(s) that have seen the greatest increase in the number of students checking out materials in Sora between March and May will be declared the winner! Winners will receive a package of Sora swag, which includes some comfy sweatshirts!
You can find more information, as well as links to marketing materials, ideas, and QR Codes to curated collections, here!
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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Flipped Classroom: Marketing & Training
This 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:
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- Lists of marketing techniques and actions from other WSDLC members and from the OverDrive team;
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- Links to the OverDrive blog’s school library marketing spotlight and previous School Stars winners;
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- Downloadable/Printable flyers, bookmarks, social media images, a coloring page, and so much more that are free to use; and
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- Training Modules from OverDrive that you can send to your students and teachers!
And speaking of marketing, did you know that there is an open document where WSDLC members can share their marketing and promotion ideas? You can find that document here! Contributions are always being made (there was even a new one in the last couple of weeks!), so check back often, and feel free to add your own marketing wins.
New to Flipped Classrooms? During our Flipped Classroom months, materials on various topics are available for members to review, and OverDrive staff is ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer your questions.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments on the flipped classroom content; we’d love to hear what you’re thinking!
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Sora Sweet Reads Begins May 4th!
OverDrive’s annual summer reading program, Sora Sweet Reads begins in May! Starting on May 4th, a new collection of free, simultaneous use titles will be added to the WSDLC collections to encourage students to keep reading all summer long! These titles will remain available through August 17th.
You can find out more about this program, and view the title lists ahead of time, on the Sora Sweet Reads page!
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Upcoming Webinar from OverDrive
OverDrive is a hosting a coming up later this week that may be of interest to many of you:
Marketplace Connections: Advocate for Your Digital Collection with Data and Insights
Thursday April 21st at 2:00pm – 2:45 pm
Join OverDrive experts to learn how to prepare a collection of reports that demonstrate the impact of your school’s digital collection. In this session, you’ll learn to:
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- Run impactful reports to advocate for budget, access, and recognition.
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- Improve workflow with SmartCarts and other automated features.
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- Dive into data on usage, interest, and the health of your collection.
A recording of the webinar will be sent the day after the live session for all registrants.
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Send Us Your Tiny Case Study Ideas!
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 2022’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/.
