March is upon us, and this month we’re going to be doing a deeper dive on Purchasing! We’ve touched on this topic during some of the previous Flipped Classrooms (Getting Started and Advantage, to name a couple), but this is such a large topic that it warrants its own dedicated month. So check your budget and prep those POs, because here we go!

Overview

All purchasing is done within OverDrive Marketplace by either choosing to be invoiced for any purchase(s) (with payment due within 30 days) or by use of Content Credit. (There are more details on Content Credit later!)

The WSDLC’s shared collections are funded through membership fees. $1.35 of the $1.60 per student membership fee is used to purchase new titles, additional copies of popular titles, access to the Magazine collection and Sora Extras, expanding the Lucky Day collection, and supporting statewide initiatives (like the annual Battle of the Books contest hosted by WEMTA).

Districts and Schools can also choose to add additional money to purchase titles that will be available for only their district and/or school(s). This is done through their own Advantage Account(s), where they can also choose to add to their own Content Credit.

Consortium Selection and Purchasing

Selection for the consortium’s shared collections is curated by a Content Specialist Librarian at OverDrive who is guided by the WSDLC Collection Development Policy. The scope of the shared collections is overseen by a Selection Advisory Committee which is made up of media specialists from WSDLC member districts. Purchasing of materials is managed by the WSDLC Project Managers who work closely with OverDrive staff. The Collection Development Policy is reviewed by the WSDLC Board annually, and can be viewed here. Below is Section C: Selection Criteria of the Collection Development Policy:

The Process

The WSDLC shared collections are curated by an OverDrive Content Specialist who selects new content for the consortium to consider for purchases on a weekly basis. The WSDLC also utilizes a Selection Advisory Committee to recommend  the scope and direction of the collections included in the WSDLC. They advise the project managers and vendors on operational collection decisions, including content to be included and budget allocations, as directed by the Board and Collection Development Policy.

Titles are chosen by our OverDrive Content Specialist on a monthly basis using professional review sources such as School Library Journal, Kirkus and CCBC Choices while closely following the WSDLC Collection Development Policy. Titles that are selected for potential purchase are added to a series of carts within Marketplace that are divided out by the suggested Content Access Level. (Content Access Levels are first assigned to titles based on the publishers’ metadata, then updated as needed by the Content Specialist based on the review sources listed above.)

The WSDLC Project Manager reviews carts and determines the quantity of each title to order. The WSDLC Project Manager also approves carts that run automatically to fill holds on titles and to replenish metered titles. The Project Manager may also purchase additional titles to enhance the collections like Battle of the Books titles, award winners and titles that have been recommended for purchase.

Recommending a Title for Purchase

The Sora platform does not offer a title recommendation feature at this time. In leiu of this, the WSDLC website includes a form that library media specialists, educators, and others at participating schools and districts can fill out to suggest a title for purchase for the shared collection. Suggestions submitted through this form are collected by the WSDLC Project Managers, and are reviewed against the WSDLC Selection Policy (Section C of the Collection Policy). If the suggested title fits within this policy, and is available for purchase through OverDrive Marketplace, the title will be added to the collection.

You can access the Suggest a Title for WSDLC form on the Collection Information page of the WSDLC website, or directly through this link: https://forms.gle/5zgD2SSd8NJPnncZ9

Advantage Purchasing

Schools have the option to purchase additional content that is available for only their school(s) that show up alongside the shared collection’s offerings in Sora for seamless access for students. This purchasing is done through a school’s Advantage Account, which was the topic of November’s Flipped Classroom (which you can view here).

To get you started, here are some great resources from OverDrive that walk through the entire purchasing process. (These were shared in November, but they are both worth taking a look at again.) 

1. OverDrive’s self-guided module Marketplace Essentials: The Shopping & Admin Portal.
2.  OverDrive’s videos Search for Titles, Understand and Refine Search Results, and Create and Edits Carts.

Terms To Know When Purchasing

In November’s Flipped Classroom, we covered Lending Models (Informational PDF), Content Access Levels (Informational PDF), and Class Sets (Informational PDF), each of which are important to know when purchasing. In addition to these topics, it’s also important to know about Content Credit.

What is Content Credit?
Content Credit is a prepayment for content ordered in OverDrive Marketplace. If you have a credit on your account, OverDrive Marketplace orders and MARC record orders will be applied to the credit balance automatically until it is fully depleted. Invoices for each purchase will show the total amount purchased, the amount of credit used and the amount due (if any). The invoices will also show your remaining balance for tracking purposes. You will be invoiced for purchases in excess of the credit balance.

If you’re unsure how much money you have available in Content Credit, you can check your balance in your Account Settings.

Adding Content Credit
You add more funds to your Content Credit account at any time by simply logging in to your Advantage Marketplace Account, navigating to Shop > Purchase content credit, and compelteing the form. You can even enter a Purchase Order number in the Internal Purchase Order ID field, or you create a Quote before making the purchase. Once your form is filled out, click Purchase, and the Content Credit amount you requested is immediately added to your account, and an invoice will be sent to your school.

Carts: Building and Purchasing

To see how you can build a cart of title to purchase for your Advantage account, check out this video:

You can also read through the step-by-step instructions here: How to Create a Cart

After you have a cart (or multiple carts) filled, it’s time to purchase! Watch this video on how to review and purchase a cart of titles, or read through the step-by-step instructions by following this link: How to Purchase a Cart.

How to Avoid Buying Titles You Already Own (When You Don’t Want To)

Sometimes, it’s beneficial to purchase multiple copies of a title; like when it’s been assigned as a class read, or when it’s a really popular title. But other times, there are titles that you only want to purchase the one time. We’ve all had that moment of panic after buying something “Have I already purchased this!?”, especially when it comes to preorders. Here are a few simple tips for double (or triple or quadruple) checking if you have already purchased a certain title:

1. Take a look at the ownership statistics after searching for a title in Marketplace:
   
   As long as you are signed in with your Advantage account, the Advantage counts (the bottom row) include copies owned at only your library.
2. Again, after searching for a title in Marketplace, you’ll see a Pending in Cart link above a title’s price if the title is already in other carts for your organization.
3. You can either run an advanced search or filter search results by “Holdings” to only shop for titles Not in collection.
4. You can open any cart to see which titles in it have also been added to other carts (Pending column) and which titles you already own (Own columns).

This brings us to the end of yet another Flipped Classroom!
You can find a full catalog of Marketplace Help topics on Purchasing and Building Carts at https://help.marketplace.overdrive.com/categories/shopping.htm

And as always, you can schedule a 20-minute one-on-one session with OverDrive staff to get your specific questions answered! Contact the WSDLC OverDrive team (wsdlc@overdrive.com) to schedule your appointment.
If you have questions specifically about the WSDLC consortium, you can contact wsdlc-info@wils.org.

In April, we’ll be looking at the final Flipped Classroom of the year: Marketing and Training. See you in April!

You can view the full year’s training plan and revisit previous Flipped Classrooms here: WSDLC Training Schedule