Rhode Island Library Information Network for Kids: OverDrive

Some key OverDrive advantages:

• Over 1.5 million titles from top publishers, large and small –including eBooks, Audiobooks, music which are downloaded for offline use and video streaming.  
• Monthly and quarterly digital content title discounts including new Novel Set options from Harper Collins & Penguin Random House starting as low as $1.10 per title/student and traditional discounts from other publishers.
• Unrivaled device compatibility—every major device including, iOS, Android, Windows, Kindle, Chromebooks, etc. (note that this device can only use our OverDrive READ format—not the EPUB)  see this link for full listing http://company.overdrive.com/education/k-12-schools/compatibility/
• The 4.5 star rated application with over 45K reviews!
• Free MARC express, editable records to load into your existing online catalog.

Why join? Joining the Rhode Island shared collection will give member schools or districts access to more digital titles than any one individual institution could purchase on their own, maximizing the benefits. For example, if School A were to initiate a digital collection of their own, they may only be able to afford 50 titles. However, by joining a collection shared by 20 schools or districts, School A would have access to 1,000 titles. This shared collection grows as more schools or districts join.

Additional benefits include:

• An unbeatable cost of $1 or less per student
• The ability to add titles specifically for your school or district (separate from the shared collection)
• Titles filtered by grade level to ensure the right titles are reaching the right students
• OverDrive content specialists will help select the best titles based on group, school or district needs

What is RILINK contributing?  RILINK will add funding to purchase additional titles for the Rhode Island OverDrive Shared Collection that will only be available to RILINK member libraries.  A RILINK member school joining the Rhode Island Shared Collection would have access to any of the titles purchased for the Shared Collection.  It could also purchase or rent additional titles for its own collection, which would not be available to members of the group.  A school library that is not a RILINK member, but joining the Rhode Island OverDrive Shared Access Collection would have access to the titles in the Shared Collection, except for those purchased by RILINK.  It could also purchase or rent additional titles for its own collection, which would not be available to members of the Shared Collection.  Please see the diagram below.

RILINK is considering affiliate membership for school libraries that wish to share resources, including the Rhode Island OverDrive Shared Collection plus access to LibGuides, ExploringNature and CultureGrams, but are not participating in the RILINK/RICAT shared Destiny Library Manager system.  If you are interested affiliate RILINK membership, please let us know.

What happens if I can't maintain my subscription to the Rhode Island Shared Collection the following year?  

The Rhode Island OverDrive Shared Collection would become part of BookLynx, which would now include:

• upload files and directions for new titles in the shared OverDrive Collection for group members on a passworded page by school level - elementary, YA, Adult (?)
• links and directions for adding new Follett shared eBook titles for RICAT libraries
• files and directions for uploading WorldBook eBook titles provided by AskRI to your catalog

See what's currently in our Shared OverDrive Collection.

Find our Rhode Island OverDrive Shared Collection at https://soraapp.com/library/rissdcri

Get the app at the bottom of the page at http://app.overdrive.com/

These are the RILINK members participating in RISOCKS:  (current as of 5/7/2019, DF).  Members of RISOCKS who are not authenticating through RICAT are designated with an asterisk after their name.

• Curtis Corner Middle School
• Exeter/West Greenwich Regional School District  *
  • Exeter/West Greenwich Regional Jr/Sr High School  *
  • Metcalf School  *
  • Wawaloam School  *
• Lincoln Central Elementary
• Lincoln Middle School  *
• Lincoln Senior High School  *
• Lincoln School  *
• Lonsdale Elementary School
• Melville Elementary School
• Mercymount Country Day School
• Mt. Hope High School  *
• North Smithfield Middle School
• Portsmouth High School
• Portsmouth Middle School
• Saylesville Elementary School

Costs for individual annual school library participation are based on student enrollment, as follows:

To join the group, please complete and submit the form below, and submit it with your payment to the OverDrive contact listed on page 2 of the form.

There are five different options to use SORA, the interface for K-12 students and teachers

1.  SORA Starter Collection

To sign up for this no-cost option, which is currently available through June 30th, check out the links below.  To apply for this option, your district must be new to SORA and OverDrive.

2.  SORA just for my district or library

To sign up for this option, click on the third link below.

3.  SORA as a member of RISOCKS, the Rhode Island Shared OverDrive Collection for Kids 

This option gives your district/school access to all of the items available in the shared collection, which continues to grow annually and as new members continue to join.  Click on the tab called Rhode Island Group for information about joining RISOCKS.

4.  RISOCKS as a RILINK member

RILINK also purchases additional items annually that are only available to RILINK members.  Please note that as of July 1, 2021, RILINK will be offering affiliate membership to school libraries at $1.50 per student which does not require the library to join our shared catalog system, called RICAT.  An Affiliate Membership also provides the library with access to our RILINK shared subscriptions:  ProQuest Culture Grams, Exploring Nature, and SpringShare's LibGuides and LibWizard as well as vendor discounts.

5.  SORA as a member of RISOCKS, plus your individual school account(s)

You can set up an individual account for purchase of local-use-only materials, and options to rent mulitple copies of titles, when they are made available at terms and cost set by the publisher for limited-time class/curriculum use.

Click here to view the recorded webinar.  You will need to enter your name, email, phone number and school (company.)

Directions for viewing:

Playback Requirements

Viewing recordings with the Conferencing Media Player requires Flash 6 or higher (use Flash 9.0.28 or higher for the optimal viewing experience). If prompted, please follow the instructions to download Flash or go to www.adobe.com to manually install Flash.

Player Controls

To make the player controls visible, hold your mouse over the bottom of the viewing area. You may fast forward or rewind to a particular portion of the recording by dragging the arrow icon with your mouse or using the right/left arrow keys. Tick marks along the player controls indicate the presence of a thumbnail. Clicking a thumbnail will jump to the portion of the recording with the image from the thumbnail.

Full Screen View

To view the recording in full screen, click on the full screen icon at the right of the player controls. Once in full screen, click the Exit Full Screen icon in the same location to view the recording in the playback window.

Check out Managing Marc Express Records (8 min.)

There are also recorded training webinars at the Resource Center located at http://resources.overdrive.com/k-12-schools/staff-training. Start with these trainings:

            *User experience*

            -Demonstration: Navigating Your OverDrive School Website

            -Demonstration: Reading History and Notes & Highlights

            *Marketplace*

            -Understanding Lending Models (K-12)

            -Shopping for Titles for Your School Website

            -Managing Content Access Levels

If you're interested in additional training, please visit the Resource Center for more information.

Collection Development Blog

School Blog

Marketing assistance

Don’t forget to promote! Please review their Best Practices for Schools—use this checklist to help you make the most of your OverDrive service.