Weekly Message: February 4th, 2025

Hello Tuesday! This week’s message covers last month’s usage statistics (plus the 7,000,000th checkout will be happening today 🎉); and the WSDLC team at OverDrive have prepped FIVE all-new Advantage Bundle Carts for easier ordering! Today’s message wraps up with the details for this month’s Flipped Classroom: Managing Holds– which includes a [shareable] video created by a WSDLC member for their students that you definitely want to take a look at!

January’s Usage Statistics

January’s checkout totals have surpassed October 2024’s totals and set a new record with 250,831 checkouts! (October 2024 had 239,359 checkouts, which had just passed May 2024’s 238,967 checkouts.)

And it wasn’t just the number of checkouts that set a new record, but the number of students checking out materials set an all-new record, too! January 2025 had 47,903 individual Wisconsin students reading materials available to them in the WSDLC collections, surpassing October 2024’s 47,461 students, and November 2024’s 46,034 students.

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.

And on the subject of breaking records…
7,000,000th Checkout Later Today!
It’s just about to happen, folks! We’re anticipating that the WSDLC collections will be seeing the 7-Millionth checkout later today!
Follow along with the WSDLC’s shared collection dashboard here. Perhaps you can even get your students amped up and see if one them can snag that milestone checkout!

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Five All-New Advantage Bundle Carts Available Now!

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).

February’s Advantage Bundle Carts include:

  • February 2025’s High-Demand Elementary Title Bundle
    High-Demand Elementary – 27 titles for $502.17
  • Youth Media Award Title Bundles
    Newbury, Caldecott, Giesel, and Printz – 28 titles for $906.88
    AAPL, Coretta Scott King, and Pura Belpre – 24 titles for $598.45
  • Scholastic Metered Access Titles Bundles
    Scholastic titles that are now being offered in MA:100 (100 checkouts, concurrent usage)!
    Elementary – 29 titles for $498.92
    Middle School – 21 titles for $406.08
    High School – 21 titles for $437.58
  • One Copy/One User Title Bundles
    Enduring titles that stand the test of time, invest in them now and own them forever!
    Elementary – 20 titles for $509.75
    Middle School – 10 titles for $504.96
    High School – 12 titles for $491.23
  • Golden Archer Awards Title Bundles
    Elementary – 13 titles for $308.68
    Middle School – 10 titles for $330.60
    High School  -10 titles for $513.64

Please reach out to wsdlc-info@wils.org for the full title list(s) and/or order form(s).

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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Flipped Classroom: Managing Holds

February’s topic in the Flipped Classroom training series is Managing Holds. This month, learn more about the three best ways to manage holds, why it’s something you’d want to do, and read an overview on what the consortium does to manage holds.
And if nothing else, you should definitely pop into the Managing Holds Flipped Classroom to view (and share!) a quirky-and-fun short video a WSDLC Member created to share with her students to help encourage them to retrieve their digital holds. (Trust us- it’s fantastic!)

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/.

WiLS Team