Tag Archives: ebooks

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2021: Sora

AASL released its list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning 2021! This year’s list took into special consideration how well these tools work for remote/distance students. The resources enhance learning and encourage the following qualities:

  • Innovation/Creativity
  • Active Participation
  • Collaboration
  • User-Friendly
  • Encourages Exploration
  • Information/Reference

We share these resources every year and you can explore our archive of past recommendations here.

If you love using Overdrive to check out ebooks and audiobooks from your library, Sora is the version for students!

“The Sora app allows learners to access popular and educational ebooks and audiobooks on any device from any location. Sora allows school librarians to curate their own collections and change the titles during the school year to align with their school’s curriculum and students’ needs. Sora also enables school librarians to support all kinds of readers by providing access to graphic novels and audiobooks paired with text. Sora also enhances reading with a dyslexic font as well as highlights and notes features students can use to complete their tasks.”

Grades: K-12

The Lion’s Roar blog has this student review of the app which details the genres Sora offers, from fiction to history and more. The Learning Counsel has this article about the app and describes how it can be made to fit teacher’s lesson plans and track students reading statistics. And Staying Cool in the Library has this article with Sora tips for both students and teachers!

Watch this 1 min video with a student explaining how she gets the most out of Sora:

Check it Out:, Guest Blogger

Mary Shaddrick Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Mary Shaddrick, Media Specialist at North Jr. High in St. Cloud, MN. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program or fill out one of our applications. This program is only available during the FY21 school year.

I was very happy to be notified my minigrant application was approved for North Junior High’s media center. The money has already helped students and staff at our school. We all are very grateful to CMLE for the chance to increase our reading opportunities.

My plan for the grant was to increase the number of eBooks available to students. Last spring, companies opened up their eBook collection to schools at no cost for many titles.  This fall, we saw a lot of the titles disappear, but the need for eBook options for students did not go away.  I started the school year by using my budget to purchase almost 100 eBooks.  However, I knew we could use at least that many more to attract students to the eBook platform and provide a variety of genres and formats. 

When I read about the CMLE Extended Minigrant program, I immediately put in an application for the purpose of adding more eBooks.  Once I knew we were approved for the funding, I set to work choosing the eBooks.  The company I use for eBooks is Mackin, and they offer a service to determine which titles would be a good fit for your collection.  The suggestions are based on criteria you choose and on your current collection.

Once I had the list from Mackin, I started making edits.  Being new to the school, I relied on checkout records and what print books I saw were in demand. I was able to choose 89 titles, and I was only 52 cents off from the grant total.  I think most media specialists are fabulous at stretching budget dollars to the max, and I wanted to get as many titles as possible while keeping the needs and wants of our student users in mind. I also added some books we have in the collection as print books as they are high demand books and having the addition of an eBook version assures more students can read the book they really want. 

The next step was to publicize the new eBooks. At the time, all students were in the distance learning model.  I put together a slide show, videos, and marketed the new eBooks on Schoology.  Immediately, I saw an increase in students accessing Mackinvia.com (Mackin’s ebook platform). Students have their own login and password for the ebooks site, and I am able to track how many read books online and how many checkout a book or place a hold on a eBook. 

The additional titles we were able to purchase with this grant will have long-term benefits for our school. Even once we return to in-person instruction, I will continue to promote the eBooks and the ability to read on their 1-to-1 devices. Since we already had some eBooks on the platform, the students do not need to remember yet another login, and the site offers the ability to preview books that are not available for checkout due to another student currently using it. 

I recently started a program I am calling “Bookhub.” It is classroom delivery of print books during students’ LA classes. When I come into their classrooms, I also make sure to promote the reading they can do through Mackinvia and the books added this year with the grant money. Each week, I see one or two more students who previously had not checked out the eBook site beginning to use it. 

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist

Annie Allen Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Annie Allen, Media Specialist at Rogers Middle School. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program or fill out one of our applications. This program is only available during the FY21 school year.

I was awarded an $800 CMLE Extended Mini Grant to purchase ebooks for our middle school students. Getting books into the hands of our students has been a challenge during Distance Learning. Students and parents are not able to easily pick up print books at the school, so expanding our ebook collection was a priority. With a limited budget, ebooks have not been something I’ve really been able to expand access to. This mini grant allowed me to purchase 108 new ebooks for our students!

Of these, 81 of the titles ordered were able to be shared across our secondary schools through MackinVIA, the platform we use for our digital content. This means that not only are these books impacting access for my 700 students here at Rogers Middle School, but thousands of students across our district! All of the titles purchased are perpetual ownership, which means our students will be able to enjoy access forever!

Historically, ebook circulation has been low at my middle school. Our students really prefer print books, but with Distance Learning ebooks became some of the only books easily accessible for students. With most of our access being those from the EbooksMN collection, I wanted to purchase some additional titles with strong middle school appeal, specifically fiction novels.

I purchased the new ebooks in late December, and they were ready and available for students when they returned from winter break. I heavily promoted the new books the first two weeks back to school, posting on Schoology, creating featured book content in MackinVIA, and sending out a video for our ELA teachers to show to students. These efforts paid off!

Last year during the same time frame (Jan 1-Jan 31, 2020) there were only 38 total logins to MackinVIA and 0 views and 0 checkouts of ebooks. This year between January 1 and January 31, 2021 there were 1,972 logins to MackinVIA, 1,080 ebook views and 12 ebook checkouts! January 2021 ebook usage exceeded TOTAL usage of ebooks from March 2020-June 2020 when we moved to Distance Learning for the first time (109 ebook views, 2 checkouts)! February has seen continued usage due to I Love to Read Month promotional activities (again featuring the new ebooks) and a virtual book tasting with 6th grade ELA classes. Through February 23rd, there have been 555 views of ebooks and 12 checkouts. This is encouraging since more than 90% of our students are now back in-person 4 days per week. 

Having the additional ebooks for our students will be a game changer for the rest of this school year and into the future. Our students who have remained in Distance Learning will continue to have easy access to our expanded ebook collection in addition to those attending school in-person. The titles purchased are newly published, old favorites, or titles in our book club collection which means they will have broad appeal for a while. I am excited to use our ebook collection for a summer reading promotion since our students will have continued access over the summer months!

Resources, Training

Webinar: DPLA and Ebooks: Expanding Access through Collaboration

 

We are passing this along from DPLA, so you can check out this webinar.

Note that MN’s own Minitex Director is one of the speakers – so you know it will be good!!

DPLA and Ebooks: Expanding Access through Collaboration

Date: February 6, 2019 at 2:00PM Eastern Time

Presenters:
Micah May, DPLA Ebooks Consultant
Michele Kimpton, Director of Business Development and Senior Strategist
Luke Swarthout, Director of Digital Policy, The New York Public Library
Michael Blackwell, Director of St. Mary’s County Library (MD)
Valerie Horton, Director of Minitex

Join DPLA staff and partners for a detailed overview of DPLA’s ebooks initiatives and how this work advances the field and supports libraries. The session will introduce the DPLA Exchange, Open Bookshelf, and SimplyE and the roles of key partners including The New York Public Library and LYRASIS. DPLA Exchange pilot partners and SimplyE implementation partners will provide insight from the field about their experiences and goals in adopting these tools and services.

Priority registration is currently open to DPLA Member Hubs. Join our mailing list or follow @dpla on Twitter for registration updates. 

Books, Children's services, School Media Specialist, Services, Tech

The Four Basic Ebook Models for K-12 Libraries

EBook between paper books
(From No Shelf Required, by )

“This is the second article in a three-part series on ebook business models in K-12 libraries. In the first article, we looked at what a business model is and at the four main kinds of ebook business models that K-12 librarians need to know about. In this article, we will look at each of the four basic models in more depth and glance at some examples of them. We will not attempt to compare product offerings in depth, but I will mention an example or two of each model. Because ebook technology is still in its early stages, the platforms and feature sets of each offering change rapidly, so any comparison is bound to be a snapshot at best. Continue reading The Four Basic Ebook Models for K-12 Libraries →