Good Tuesday morning and Happy New Year! All of us with the WSDLC hope your winter breaks were just what you needed. This week’s message is highlighting December’s Usage Statistics and January’s Flipped Classroom: Marketing and Training (which has been freshly updated). We also have a couple of reminders: WEMTA’s Battle of the Books registration is closing soon; and the Advantage Carts that were released in December are still available to purchase.
December’s Usage Statistics
December typically sees a small dip in usage as students leave the classroom, and 2024 was no different. Last month, the shared collections had:
- 28,016 Audiobooks checked out;
- 137,117 eBooks checked out; and
- 7,469 Magazines checked out
There were a total of 39,383 individual students checking out titles in December 2024(!), and of that number, 4,006 students were completely new to Sora!
Keeping with the theme of new users: so far, during the 2024-25 membership year (beginning on September 1st) the WSDLC has onboarded or expanded membership* for 18 Wisconsin school districts and 17,186 students, and already there have been 39,286 new Sora users checking out titles! (And 848 of those users have been in just the past 7 days!) This shows that not only are students in districts new to the WSDLC and Sora using the resources available to them, but students who previously had access are discovering what is available to them as well.
*Note: Because of differences in reporting, these totals do not include data for districts that expanded their access as a part of the WSDLC Membership renewal process.
And as of January 2nd, the Top 10 Titles with Holds (in the shared collections) are:
The Scarlet Shedder – 1515 holds
Hot Mess – 1369 holds
Big Jim Begins – 617 holds
Kristy and the Walking Disaster – 605 holds
Escaping Peril – 420 holds
Karen’s Grandmothers – 346 holds
Guts – 305 holds
Sisters – 283 holds
Dog Man – 218 holds
Coraline – 198 holds
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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Flipped Classroom: Marketing & Training
This month’s Flipped Classroom is covering Marketing & Training, which we know this is a hot topic for many of you. We’ve given it a little refresh this year, 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, teachers, and caregivers!
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: WEMTA’s Battle of the Books Registration Ends Next Week
Registration for 2025’s Battle of the Books, hosted by WEMTA, closes on Wednesday, January 15th. (Credit Card only registration)
To help support students as they participate in WEMTA’s Battle of the Books, WSDLC Project Managers are purchasing additional ebook, audiobook, and Spanish-language (when available) copies of the titles on each reading list, and curated collections have been created for each division. You can find (and share!) the curated collections through the links below:
What is WEMTA’S Battle of the Books (BoB)? Simply put, the Battle of the Books is an online trivia competition for students across Wisconsin. There are three divisions for students to compete in: Elementary (grades 4-6), Middle (grades 6-8), and Senior (grades 8+). Students can form teams of 2-4 people and, between everyone in the team, they read from a list of 20 books. Starting in early February, students have the opportunity to participate in “practice battles”, and the official Battle of the Books competition runs the last full week of February.
You can learn more about the BoB on the Battle of the Books webpage.
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Advantage Bundle Carts are Still Available!
The WSDLC’s dedicated Digital Content Specialist, Beth Saxton, has created an all-new series of sets of titles for WSDLC members to easily purchase for their Advantage collections! No logging into Marketplace, and no trying to figure out how to get the most of your funds. Just a simple, straightforward way to reduce your students’ wait times on the titles they want most!
When you’re ready to purchase any of these packages, you can submit your order through their linked Google Form order forms. When completing the form(s), you’ll have the opportunity to specify in you’d like your purchase(s) to billed by invoice, issuing a PO, or by content credit that you already have deposited in your Advantage Account(s).
In December, Beth curated TWO bundle-themes that can still be purchased:
- Buzz Books, whose carts include titles available in Sora that have been included in lists from Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz. These bundled packages include:
Caldecott: 19 titles for $402.56
Newbery: 23 titles for $503.01
Printz: 21 titles for $503.73 - December’s High-Demand Elementary Titles, where “High Demand” is determined as the audiobooks and ebooks that have the highest numbers of holds and checkouts within the shared collections. This bundle includes 22 titles for $505.91
Please reach out to wsdlc-info@wils.org for the full title list(s) and/or order form(s).
*Please note that these lists are not customizable for ordering. Please reach out to the OverDrive team at wsdlc@overdrive.com for additional options.
Save yourself time and money, and help get those high-interest, high-hold titles into the hands of your students faster by ordering today!
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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/.
