Happy Tuesday, WSDLC Membership! It’s the first Tuesday of the month, so last month’s usage statistics are ready to share. We’re also including some reminders: the annual WSDLC Membership survey is open for you (and anyone else at your school who utilizes Sora/Marketplace) to complete, and OverDrive’s annual School Stars contest is open and accepting submissions. It’s also time for a new Flipped Classroom topic (Managing Holds), and we wanted to share details on when/how WSDLC renewals can be expected. Have a great week, everyone!
January’s Usage Statistics
The WSDLC shared collections are starting the year strong with 194,845 total checkouts from 38,988 different students! These numbers in themselves are impressive, but on top of that, January’s checkouts set a new record for the number of checkouts in a single month! In the last few years, May, October, and November have had the highest numbers of checkouts, so it’s particularly exciting for January to join those ranks. In the chart below, you can see how this past January stacked up against Januarys of years past (since 2020).
And while we’re on the topic of checkouts in January, in case you missed it last week, the WSDLC has surpassed 5 million lifetime checkouts as of January 26th! What a month!
January also saw impressive growth in the number of students accessing WSDLC materials! Just like with checkouts this month, January of years past had been sitting in the middle of the pack for the number of students checking out titles, but January 2024 is again running tight with May, October, and November counts. You can really see this growth in the chart below, which shows the number of students- separated by new users and returning users- checking out titles each January since 2020.
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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Reminder: Complete the Annual WSDLC Membership Survey
The 2024 WSDLC Member Survey is 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. Responses will be used to help the WSDLC Board further develop the Consortium and the OverDrive service.
The link for the survey has been sent to all WSDLC members via email; if you did not receive the survey, please reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org to have the link sent to you.
Thank you again for your time and thoughts!
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Flipped Classrooms: Managing Holds
February is here, so it’s time for another topic in the WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom series! This month, we’re talking about Managing Holds. Learn how to make the most of your Advantage purchases, and take a look at some of the features and programs OverDrive and the WSDLC employ to get the books your students want into their hands sooner. There is also an excellent marketing resource regarding holds created by one of our members!
What are the WSDLC’s Flipped Classrooms?
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 is intended for library media specialists and anyone else who may help manage school/district library resources, OverDrive Advantage purchasing, and digital classroom materials. Materials are available for members to review independently, and OverDrive staff are ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer members’ questions.
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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OverDrive’s School Stars is Open for Submissions!
Has your school done some Sora-related marketing/promoting/sharing this school year that you’re proud of? Did you create a really cool-looking bulletin board or a social media post that got a lot of traction, or did your library host an event that included WSDLC’s digital materials and got students logging in to Sora? Whatever it is, share your idea with other Sora users worldwide!
OverDrive’s global contest, School Stars, celebrates the variety of ways schools promote Sora and opened for submissions on February 5th! There are different categories to enter: bulletin boards, community engagement, social media posts, classroom engagement, and even an opportunity for your students to create something to submit!
If you’ve done any promotional work this school year (August 2023 – Time of entry), consider entering this contest! We say this often, but it always rings true: no accomplishment or action is too small to enter!
Learn more about School Stars here!
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Heads Up: 2024-25 WSDLC Membership Renewal Information Details
It’s inching closer to that time of year again when many of you are beginning to work on your budgets for the upcoming year, secure POs, and plan your subscription renewals.
We aren’t able to start calculating costs quite yet, but we are hopeful to have all WSDLC 2024-25 renewal quotes sent out to each school/district’s WSDLC Main Contact(s) by the end of March. Once DPI releases the certified enrollment data for the 2023-24 school year, we will be able to begin calculating the cost for each member district. (DPI should be releasing this information within the next few weeks, and we are already checking WISEdash daily.)
Details on Pricing Quote Calculation
WSDLC renewal pricing is based on DPI’s certified enrollment numbers for the previous academic year. To calculate costs for the 2024-25 WSDLC membership year, we will be using the FTE data for 2023-24. Once we have this information, we will calculate the 2024-25 membership costs, and quotes will be emailed to each school/district’s WSDLC Main Contact within a week. (Not sure who your Main Contact is? You can reach out to us at wsdlc-info@wils.org to find out!)
As a reminder, in March 2023, the WSDLC Board approved keeping the cost per student steady for 2024-25, with a 2% increase for the following two membership years. The price will be $1.65 per student for the 2024-25 membership year, increasing to $1.72 per student for 2025-26; and $1.74 per student for 2026-27.
And while you’re thinking about your budgets for next year, remember that your WSDLC Membership includes magazines!
On top of ebooks, comic books, and audiobooks that your students love, your WSDLC membership also includes access to many popular magazines! The WSDLC collections include over 80 magazine titles like National Geographic Kids and National Geographic Little Kids, MiniMag, Minecraft World Magazine, It GiRL, Rolling Stone, and so many more!
If you’re in a position where you need to make the difficult decision to trim your budget, take a peek at what’s available with your WSDLC membership; you may find some resources here that could fill the place of other, pricier subscriptions.
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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/.
