[aisle] Sora app for ebooks

[Pam Meiser]

 Overdrive is the foundation. Sora is a kid friendly overlay on top of
Overdrive. There are apps for both, your ebooks and audiobooks can be
accessed through both, and both support highlighting, note taking,
bookmarking, and searching. It's easy to add a public library to the app,
but it's not automatic.

We are a unit district, so we have three portals: PreK-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
The content is filtered because we only buy what's appropriate for that
grade level's portal.

Sometimes Overdrive offers sets of books for free or pushes out free books
(summer reading, for example.) You will likely end up with titles that are
not appropriate for your patrons. In that case, you can go to the
Marketplace and "weed" those titles from your portal.

Our area public libraries offer two library cards: one for adults and one
for juveniles. The juvenile card has restrictions. If the child/family adds
their public library to Overdrive/Sora using a juvenile card, then the
public library content will be filtered in whatever way the public library
has predetermined. If the student adds the public library using an adult
card, then there is *no* filtering of the public library content.

Many parents choose to have one card for the entire family to help them
keep track of what is checked out, due dates, etc. I encourage parents to
get a separate card for their child and use a parent email address. The
parent can still check the account and receive email reminders, but the
child feels cool having their own library card (!), and the content they
can check out (virtually or in person) is restricted. (I don't tell the
kids that, though!)

I hope this helps! I encourage you to contact a/your sales rep. Ours is
amazing and knows, or finds, the answers to my questions. I've only stumped
him once. He's easy to get in touch with and responds in a timely manner.

We love Sora in Barrington, and it's been great during distance learning!

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 9:14 AM Kulesza, Patti via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> Could someone clarify overdrive sora app for me? The app for a school
> needs to be arranged by the overdrive rep. Then app gets downloaded on
> school chromebooks and kids then search through sora app/the public lib.
> Ebook & audio collection with filtered content. Is that right?
>
-- 
Ms. Pamela L. Meiser *Teacher Librarian **Barbara B. Rose Elementary School*
*"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." -
Mason Cooley*
Click *HERE <https://soraapp.com/library/barringtoneil>* to access Sora,
Barrington220's source for eBooks and audiobooks
Click HERE <https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/3127> to
access your child's library account
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