Digital eBooks for Students from the Wisconsin Schools Digital Library Consortium

This year, nearly 100 school districts across the state have expanded their library collection with popular and classic eBooks that students can read anytime, anywhere, made possible by the Wisconsin Schools Digital Library Consortium. This consortium provides nearly 3500 eBooks to over 114,000 students across the state at a cost of only $1.50 per student. The consortium launched in January 2018 to help all districts across the state gain access to digital resources at an affordable price.

“The WSDLC collection opened the door to accessible e-books at our elementary school through easy use, a large selection, and teacher support. As the district library media specialist, I can now offer ebooks for everyone and can accommodate requests with almost instant additions to our collection with our account - this keeps students reading and teachers requesting them,” reports Peg Billing, Library Media Instructional Technology Coordinator of the School District of Tomahawk.

This eBook collection can help students of all ages read more and improve comprehension. Struggling or reluctant readers, learning-challenged, second language learners, and gifted readers can all benefit from this service that can enrich vocabulary, improve comprehension and pronunciation, connect students to books for their personal reading levels, teach critical listening, and help busy kids find time to read.

Three grade-appropriate libraries, for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12, make up the collection. Students can browse the library’s catalog, borrow titles, and start reading on all major computers and devices and all checkouts automatically expire at the end of the lending period - no late fees!

Like Wisconsin’s Digital Library for public library patrons, this collection is provided on the OverDrive platform. “The Richfield middle school students absolutely love using OverDrive,” says Richfield School District’s Patricia Thoma. “The idea of always having a book there for them, or on hold, excites our students. Every day, over 75% of our readers choose to read electronically. Our readership has exploded, and our nonreaders are extinct.”

The Wisconsin Schools Digital Library Consortium is a partnership between the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, CESA Purchasing, the CESA Statewide Network, and WiLS. To learn more about WSDLC, visit https://www.wils.org/wsdlc.

Article written by Sara Gold, WiLS Community Liaison/Service Specialist