How Our Library Reached #1 in ebook Checkouts in Our District

Recently, at a statewide school librarian collaborative, I was asked how our school promotes ebooks/audiobooks and how we get our students to read them. It was such a layered question that I tried to answer with the time we had, but there is so much that goes into how our students are consistently the #1 in the district for ebook checkouts and time spent reading.

{Some background before you read on, our middle school is one school in a large metro Atlanta county that supports 58 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, 15 high schools, and 7 charter schools. Our district utilizes Sora for our ebooks and audiobooks.}

Check out the ways we have promoted and made ebooks a part of our culture below.

Instructional Collaborations

​​The number one way to quickly increase circulation and begin making digital reading a part of your school culture is teacher buy-in. Not all teachers believe that ebooks or audiobooks are considered real reading and it takes time to shift that mentality. So how do you shift the mindset?

• Make your case at PLC, content, or grade level meetings. Explain the benefits of ebooks and audiobooks and share the stats. Most people who are anti-ebooks have only heard the negative. 
• Benefits:
  • ​Instant access to materials
  • Assigning books for a specific period of time
  • Digital badging for reading achievements
  • Accommodations for students (text-to-speech, dyslexic font, speed of reading, highlighting, etc.)
  • Ability to bookmark, make notes, and save pages for assigned readings
  • No lost books or late fees
• Look for opportunities to include ebooks and audiobooks to support the curriculum. The most engaging way to start doing that is with book tastings! (Read my blog post on that here)

Student Voice in the Collection

Do you include student voice in your collection? If not, you are missing out on the #1 way to engage your students in reading. Student requests, surveys, feedback, daily conversations, and our Student Library Advisory Board guide my collection development throughout the year. Yes, I still purchase award winners, books for book clubs, and examine needed books to fill gaps in our collection, but our student requests fill the majority of our book purchases. When students know their voices are heard, they feel a part of something more - a community who cares about them. Reading naturally happens when you listen to what your patrons need. The additional benefits of serving student's need for belonging makes this even more important.

Inclusive Texts

Ebooks ​help students tackle tough topics they may be too shy, embarassed, or scared to ask about or checkout in a physical format. We offer digital reading that feature heavy subjects including police brutality, white privilege, racism, suicide, abuse, school shootings, life-threatening diseases and LGBTQ+ rights. As a school librarian, equitable access and student privacy are extremely important. Ebooks allow for both and our students often feel more comfortable seeking out information this way.

We have a display with a QR code on bookmarks for tough topics that link to collections for students to pick up too.

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Advertising

Students don’t know, until they know. Using visual displays coupled with QR codes to alert students of all the great titles we have in Sora has helped in building a culture of digital reading. For instant gratification, we advertise right on the shelves. If the physical book is not here, we want students to know we are thinking of their needs with our digital collection.

When a student isn’t sure what to read, we help them to decide with BookFlix (our spin on the Netflix platform, template detailed here). BookFlix shows available print and digital books based on students’ favorite reads, as recommended by our Student Library Advisory Board. Made up of students grades 6-8, the advisory board helps add new books and change out books each month to keep recommendations fresh!

I also display ebooks all over the school with the use of school monitors, our morning news show, on social media, school newsletters, and bulletin boards. When I share physical books, I also share digital books so that there is not a stigma of what reading medium we choose. It's in their faces every day as they are in the lunch room, in the hallways, in the morning news, etc. When I share what I read with students, I share a mix of how I read with physical and digital books on a display outside the library as well. When I've read an ebook or audiobook, I link it with a QR code so students can access it easily.

​In what ways are you advertising and utilizing digital books at your school? I'd love to hear. Feel free to leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter or Instagram.