Good morning, and a Happy 2026 to you all!
We’re starting off the calendar year with some small excitements to share, alongside some helpful reminders from around the state and your OverDrive team:
- Last Month’s Usage Statistics & New Titles List
- 2025 Sora Highlights: Updates & New Features from the Past Year
- WEMTA’s Battle of the Books Registration Dates & BoB Titles in Sora, and
- WSDLC’s Self-Paced Training Topic Materials for January: Marketing & Training
We hope everyone has been able to have a restorative winter break, and welcome you all back into the classroom!
December’s Usage Statistics + 9,000,000 Checkouts!
Looking at December’s Sora usage across the consortium:
- 31,891 Audiobooks were checked out,
- 162,840 Ebooks were checked out, and
- 12,466 Magazines were checked out,
all adding up to a monthly total of 207,197 titles read, by 44,221 individual students across the state.
And then on Monday, December 22nd, the shared collections hit that next big milestone: the 9 millionth checkout!
The title that holds the honor of being the 9 millionth checkout is *drumroll* Spy School, the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs
Looking back, here are all of the previous X-millionth checkout titles:
1,000,000th checkout: December 4th, 2020 with Hard Luck: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 8 by Jeff Kinney
2,000,000th checkout: November 22nd, 2021 with The Last Straw: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 3, by Jeff Kinney
3,000,000th checkout: September 29th, 2022 with Wrecking Ball: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 14, by Jeff Kinney
4,000,000th checkout: May 11th, 2023 with Trucks, by Gary Sprott
5,000,000th checkout: January 26th, 2024 with Who Would Win: Lobster vs Crab, by Jerry Pallotta
6,000,000th checkout: September 16th, 2024 with Who Would Win: Ultimate Showdown by Jerry Pallotta
7,000,000th checkout: February 4th, 2025 with Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins
8,000,000th checkout: June 11th, 2025 with an issue of the magazine Ranger Rick
View the full calendar year’s consortium statistics as a Google Sheet here.
Download historical stats from the bottom of the WSDLC Year to Date Statistics page.
Learn how to run usage stats for only your district/school:
- WSDLC’s newly updated Training Resources page | Reports section,
- WSDLC’s Flipped Classroom: Usage Statistics,
- OverDrive Resource Center’s training videos, and/or
- OverDrive’s self-paced View Sora Activity training module
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From the Community: WEMTA’s Battle of the Books – Registration Closes Soon
Registration for 2026’s Battle of the Books, hosted by WEMTA, closes on 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:
- WI Battle of the Books Elementary 25-26
- WI Battle of the Books Middle 25-26
- WI Battle of the Books Senior 25-26
What is WEMTA’S Battle of the Books (BoB)? BoB 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 them 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 runs the last full week of February.
You can learn more about the BoB on WEMTA’s Battle of the Books website.
Coming Again Soon: CPC BoB Titles in Sora
The pilot project in November went so well, we’re doing it again!
The WSDLC in coordination with OverDrive is pleased to announce a re-up of the pilot program that will again make many of this year’s Middle and High School, and now some of the Elementary School, Battle of the Books titles available with no holds. The Cost Per Circ (CPC) program will begin January 12th and remain active until February 23rd. The program will feature available titles on the Elementary School list, 18 titles on the Middle School list, and 20 titles from the High School list. Both ebook and audiobook formats will be included as available from publishers. The WSDLC is allocating an additional $50K toward this pilot and titles will remain available as funding allows until February 23rd.
Checkout limits will allow 2 ebooks and 1 audiobook title per student at one time.
If you have questions, please reach out to the WSDLC Project Managers at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
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New Titles Added in December
Last month, 188 completely new titles were added into the shared collection!
- 9 Audiobooks: 1 Lower Elementary; 2 Upper Elementary; 2 Middle School, and 4 Lower High School
- 103 Ebooks: 22 Lower Elementary; 13 Upper Elementary; 25 Middle School; and 43 Lower High School
- 76 Magazines: 8 Lower Elementary; 44 Middle School; and 24 Lower High School
Of these new titles, there are:
- 53 subject areas, the top five being: Comic & Graphic Books (62), Young Adult Fiction (49), Juvenile Fiction (33), Juvenile Literature (25), and Fantasy (20).
- 8 languages: English (180), Italian (2), Japanese (2), Spanish; Casitilian (1), French (1), Polish (1), and Portuguese (1)
- 6 lending models: 129 Subscription (that is, multiple users can check out the same title at the same time), 26 MA (12mo/OU), 18 OC/OU, MA (24mo/OU), MA (100 checkouts/CU), and 1 MA (26 checkouts/OU)
*Learn more about OverDrive’s Lending Models with the WSDLC’s newly updated Training Resources page | Purchasing section
View the full title list (with format and CAL) as a Google Sheet here.
(This Google Sheet also includes the new titles added each month, so if you ever miss a month, we’ve got you covered!)
You can find more information, including the Collection Development policy and a Statement on the WSDLC Collections, on the Collection Information and Circulation Policies page on the WSDLC website.
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From OverDrive: 2025 Sora Highlights: Updates & New Features from the Past Year
- Daily Reading Goals: A new way to encourage students to take ownership of their reading growth and motivate them along the way.
- Reading Challenges: Create custom competitions that encourage students to read more and reach their goals.
- Autocomplete search suggestions: Get suggestions for title, author, and series when searching Sora. Suggestions are limited to access level and titles owned in the collection.
- Hold Efficiency Changes: We’ve streamlined the holds process to make it simpler, ensuring users get books faster.
- Sora Reading Launchpad: A new resource kit designed to help staff and teachers integrate your digital library into classroom learning.
- Spanish title options: Penguin Random House Spain made 1700+ titles available in the CPC lending model for more purchasing alternatives.
- Sora & TeachingBooks Integration: Access the digital books in your Sora collection directly from TeachingBooks and get title requests from your users.
- Class Set & CPC options: When available, shoppers will see more lending model options alongside MA and OC/OU results in Marketplace.
- Student Dashboard Improvements: Student dashboard grids have a sleek new look with improved graph visualizations.
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January’s Self-Paced Training Topic Materials: Marketing & Training
Monthly training topics are intended for WSDLC members who are new to the WSDLC, as well as those who might be in need of reminders on a certain topic, might by looking for inspiration, or just want to see if there’s anything new.
- Flipped Classrooms: Marketing & Training – This flipped classroom covers resources and ideas on how WSDLC members can reach students, colleagues, and caregivers to spread the word on Sora and the shared digital collection. Ideas and resources that have been pulled together in this flipped classroom can work as a jumping point to implement your own marketing strategies, and include:
- 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!
- Tiny Case Studies: Getting Buy-In From Key Stakeholders – 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. This TCS comes from Jennifer Peterson (a WSDLC Board Member) at Menasha Joint School District: “You finally have ebooks, but now how do you get people to start using them? Who should you start with? How do you spread the word and garner interest?”
- Tip Sheet: Marketing & Engagement – A Google Doc where WSDLC members have been invited to share marketing and training activities that they have done in their schools that have been successful.
- OverDrive’s Resource Center – A collection of ready-to-use outreach materials that schools can download and use immediately, from OverDrive.
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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/.
