Happy Tuesday everyone! We hope everyone had a pleasant Spring Break, filled with many moments of relaxation, peace, and contentment. This week’s message has a couple of big announcements, last months’ usage stats, plus a few reminders of other happenings from the WSDLC.

Connie Bowman’s Departure

Connie Bowman has been a mainstay with the WSDLC since its inception, and she has helped guide many WSDLC members through the onboarding process. We are sad to announce that Connie will be leaving OverDrive and today, April 2nd, is her last day with us. We deeply appreciate all of Connie’s hard work and her dedication to the WSDLC—she has always been a phone call away day or night!
We are reassured by the fact that Lena Richardson will be rejoining the team to support the WSDLC along with Amanda Izuka-Lawman and Beth Saxton. Please reach out to Lena or any of the OverDrive team members at wsdlc@overdrive.com with any questions.
We wish Connie the best in her new position and are grateful for her part in making the WSDLC the success that it is.

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2024-25 WSDLC Membership Renewal Quotes – Coming Later Today!

They’re here, all! DPI released the 2023-24 Certified Enrollment Numbers on March 21st, and we spent Spring Break going through every members’ membership, calculating renewal costs, and preparing quotes. Now that most everyone is back from Spring Break (we wanted to make sure quotes sit near the top of WSDLC Primary Contacts’ inboxes), renewal information and costs will be sending out early this afternoon.

As a reminder, we ask that you complete the renewal form before August 31st; any WSDLC Members that we do not hear from will be automatically renewed in September. You will have an opportunity on the renewal form to indicate any updates to your contacts and/or membership. Invoices for renewals will be sent from WiLS in September, and you will have the opportunity on the form to indicate a different invoicing date if you wish. And finally, even though WiLS is the Project Manager for the WSDLC, WSDLC members do not need to be WiLS Cooperative Purchasing members to enroll; because of this, WiLS Cooperative Purchasing members will not find their WSDLC renewal information in MyWiLS.

New to the renewal form this year:

WSDLC Members have been asking for this, and OverDrive is making it happen: Additional Content Access Levels are coming! There is not a release date on this yet, but districts can start indicating now if they would like to adjust their students’ access to include additional/fewer collections when they become available.

What does this mean?
Right now, the WSDLC has three collections that students can be assigned access to:

• K-5 Collection. This has content that has been rated for grades K-5.
• 6-8 Collection. This has content that has been rated for grades 6-8, and also includes access to the K-5 collection.
• 9-12 Collection. This has content that has been rated for grades 9-12, and also includes access to the K-5 and 6-8 collections.

Once OverDrive’s technical team completes the system upgrades to allow additional Content Access Levels (date TBD), these three collections will become five collections:

• K-2 Collection. This will have content that has been rated for grades PreK-2.
• 3-5 Collection. This will have content that has been rated for grades 3-5, and will also include access to the K-2 Collection.
• 6-8 Collection. This will have content that has been rated for grades 6-8, and will also include access to the K-2 and 3-5 Collections.
• 9-10 Collection. This will have content that has been rated for grades 9-10, and will also include access to the K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 Collections.
• 11-12 Collection. This will have content that has been rated for grades 11-12, and will also include access to the K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-10 Collections.

Just like it is now, when these additional collections become available, students can be assigned access to one-, two-, three-, four-, or all five collections, and they will be able to view content in only the collection(s) they are assigned to. Any grade levels at your school can be allowed access to any of these collections. That is, your 8th grades can access the 9-10 and 11-12 collections if you wish; or your 9th graders can access up to the 6-8 collection; or whatever fits your district best!
Renewal costs will not change if you choose to opt-in to these new content access levels.

If your school/district already knows that you’d like to take advantage of these new collections, you can let us know your choices in the renewal form! OverDrive will be able to prepare for your access updates, and you’ll be among the first to utilize the new collections once they become available.
If your students’ access is perfect the way it is and you don’t need to utilize these new collections, you can let us know that in the form, too! Once these new collections go live, your students’ access will remain exactly the same and they won’t notice any changes to the books, magazines, and comics that they already have access to.
If you just aren’t sure yet, and don’t have the capacity to think about it, that’s alright, too! We can reach out to you again later this summer, or you can always choose to update your students’ access at any time of the year once these additional collections become available- just let us know! In the meantime, your students’ access will remain exactly the same.

And as a reminder, there is no timeline on when these new collections will become available. We’re just collecting interest now to help the WSDLC OverDrive team prepare for when they are able to start implementing the new Content Access Levels.

If you have any questions about any of this, please reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org and/or the WSDLC OverDrive team at wsdlc@overdrive.com.

Thank you!

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March Usage Statistics

March was a quiet month, with fewer students logging in and fewer total checkouts:

• Audiobooks Checked Out: 24,836
• Ebooks Checked Out: 127,770
• Magazines Checked Out: 7,649

Also in March, there were 35,761 individual students that checked out a title! Looking at years past, March 2023 had 29,599 students checking out titles; March 2022 had 27,332 students checking out titles; and March 2021 had 22,368.

The average waiting period for titles on hold has crept up, and today we’re looking at nearly a 23-day wait time for popular titles. But don’t worry, this is normal: There is a brief surge in the average wait time that corresponds with spring breaks throughout the state, and we expect these wait times to drop again to their usual 14-day (or one checkout period) within a week or so.

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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Volunteer for the WSDLC Selection Advisory Committee!

We are seeking volunteers to serve on the WSDLC’s Selection Advisory Committee, to begin on September 1st, 2024!

About the Selection Advisory Committee
The Selection Advisory Committee is an integral part of the WSDLC’s governance. The Selection Advisory Committee recommends the scope and direction of the collections included in the WSDLC, and they advise the project manager and vendors on operational collection decisions, including content to be included and budget allocations, as directed by the Board and Collection Development Policy.

Committee members are expected to:

• Attend and participate in scheduled meetings unless excused.
• Review provided materials, including circulation/hold reports, budget updates, etc.
• Participate in online discussions to make collection decisions between meetings.
• Act as an advocate and representative for the WSDLC.

The Committee meets 4 times per year: in September, October, December, and March.
Committee members serve for 2 year terms.

You can view the full Selection Advisory Guidelines, which includes the committee’s full charge, membership, member expectations, and meeting schedule details, here.

Requirements to Serve
To qualify for the Selection Advisory Committee, volunteers must be a library media specialist from a WSDLC participating district/school.

Committee Population
Project managers and Board Chair will develop a list of potential representatives from those who volunteer, and the Board will have final approval of the committee roster. Committee members will be chosen to have a diversity of geography, enrollment size, and grade level experience.

We will be accepting volunteers to serve on the Selection Advisory Committee through Wednesday, April 10th. To complete the volunteer form, please reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org.

Volunteers will be notified by the end of April whether they have been selected by the Board to serve on the Selection Advisory Committee. Terms will begin on September 1st.

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Save the Date: 2024 Annual WSDLC Membership Meeting

The date has been set and speakers are being prepared for the 2024 WSDLC Annual Membership Meeting. You can register now and have it added to your calendar now so you don’t miss it.

Date: Tuesday, May 14th
Time: 3:45pm – 4:45pm
Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3-I0Vb94Sbasn6k6h5AkWQ 
Description: This year’s meeting will host three WSDLC Member speakers who will share how they’ve utilized their WSDLC Membership and engaged their students. Following these presentations, Sara and Rebecca will share a recap from 2023- including some really impressive usage stats- and provide a peek into the future of what is to come.

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Reminders: News from OverDrive

Join the Sora Reading Community Facebook Group!

OverDrive just launched a new Facebook Group: the Sora Reading Community, where you can “Connect with fellow librarians and educators to talk reading tips, tricks and best practices.”
The Sora Reading Community Facebook Group is listed as Private (so you will need to request access before being able to view the page and any posts) and is intended by OverDrive to be a user-led discussion space: “A group for K-12 educators to share book recommendations, literacy tips, and how they’re using the Sora digital reading platform at their schools.” This group just started within the last few of weeks, so there isn’t much in terms of content and discussions yet, but as more and more Sora schools join, the conversations and info-sharing are sure to ramp up!

Update to Android OS requirements for Sora and all OverDrive apps and websites

OverDrive sent out the following message yesterday about changes to Android OS requirements, and we want to make sure no one misses it:

If you have any questions about this, please contact the WSDLC OverDrive team at wsdlc@overdrive.com.

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Flipped Classrooms: Marketing!

April begins 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:
Lists of marketing techniques and actions from other WSDLC members and from the OverDrive team;
Links to the OverDrive blog’s school library marketing spotlight and previous School Stars winners;
Downloadable/Printable flyers, bookmarks, social media images, a coloring page, and so much more that are free to use; and
Training Modules from OverDrive that you can send to your students and teachers!

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 that may help to 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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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/.