Educational Technology at IU13

Sora has seen quite a few changes over the past few months and with all the emails that land in your inbox, it can be easy to miss an announcement or two. To help you get caught up on all things Sora, below is a list of seven new features and tools you may have missed. Check them out below:

• Google Classroom Add-On –  The new Sora Add-On allows you to browse your school’s catalog and attach specific titles to posts within Google Classroom.
• Only available for schools using Google Workspace for Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade.
• See here for details.
• On-Demand Class Sets – Feedback from schools helped us develop a more flexible curriculum-centered lending model option.
• Content Bundles – Reserve titles and offer exclusive access to select users. Great for curriculum titles, classroom libraries, professional development for staff and more.
• Sora Extras – Add learning resources like DOGO News and Method Learning to Sora.
• Comics & Magazines – All access comics and magazines packages are now available for Sora! Contact your Account Manager for pricing.
• Sora Showcase – Give your digital collection a physical presence with our free interactive discovery kiosk software! Contact Zach Delin at OverDrive to get started.
• Student Dashboard – Admins can now see more detailed individual and aggregated reading data to help make data-driven decisions about literacy and reading initiatives.

Announcement: OverDrive will be updating their network configuration on October 10, 2022.

Action required by School Districts

School Districts may currently be allowing 207.54.136.106, 207.54.137.114, and 207.54.137.115 through their firewall for OverDrive to connect with their ILS/LMS to authenticate users during the sign in process. If so, districts need to update their firewall before October 10, 2022, to allow the following subnet: 134.195.60.0/24. This will ensure there is no disruption for users. For now, please continue to allow 207.54.136.106, 207.54.137.114, and 207.54.137.115 through your district's firewall. If your authentication service is hosted offsite by your ILS/LMS vendor, we recommend contacting them to confirm the updated IP addresses.

Additionally, in rare circumstances, some institutions filter outbound network access to specific IP addresses. If your institution does this, you will need to add 134.195.60.0/24 to your allow list to ensure your users can still access OverDrive from within your network after this change.

OverDrive will send a follow up message in October confirming that this migration is complete and it is safe to remove the legacy 207.54.136.0/23 IP addresses from your firewall. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to our team via the Authentication Support button under the Support tab in OverDrive Marketplace.

Notice of upcoming OverDrive server maintenance

Between May 3 and July 28, 2022, OverDrive will perform server upgrades to enhance the performance and security of their systems. Upgrades will occur between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays and could impact service only once for approximately 60 minutes or less. Impacts to your users should be minimal.

Additional details:

• Users will still be able to sign in to your digital collection and browse or read titles, but may encounter errors when attempting to borrow, place a hold, or return titles during your maintenance period.
• Please contact your Account Manager with questions.

Update regarding OverDrive video

Last year, OverDrive acquired Kanopy, a leading streaming video service. While Kanopy is currently for public libraries, colleges, and universities, we are exploring opportunities for K-12 partners in the future. In the meantime, OverDrive is preparing to wind down the OverDrive video format. All OverDrive video titles will be removed from your collection on September 1, 2022.

Additional details:

• Once OverDrive video titles are removed from your collection, any users with active checkouts on OverDrive video titles will be able to enjoy the title through the end of the lending period.
• All videos uploaded as Local Content through OverDrive will also be removed from your collection on September 1.
• We recommend removing any MARC records for OverDrive video from your library's catalog. If you receive MARC express records, we can create delete records upon request.

Upcoming Webinars

Summer and winter breaks are almost upon us and there’s no better time to revisit Sora and explore ways to keep students reading even when school’s not in session. Bookmark their Upcoming Webinars page now to stay up to date with our current offerings and learn about what’s coming next, such as Sora Essentials on May 10th at 3 pm EST, World Literary Tour: Spotlight on OverDrive's Spanish-Language Catalog on May 11th at 11 am EST, and Sora Connections: Making the Most of Your School Breaks on May 26th at 3 pm EST. 

Something for Spring

Sora Sweet Reads begins May 4th and runs through August 17th. "Join OverDrive this summer with their annual reading program. Sora Sweet Reads is designed for schools to encourage students to keep reading all year long. They are offering a collection of free and simultaneous use juvenile and young adult ebooks (and select audiobooks). These titles will be available to participating schools and prominently displayed in Sora so it’s easy for students to find their next sweet read."

Children’s Book Sale

In April, OverDrive has built carts with a max amount of $500, $1000 and $1500. Visit OverDrive Marketplace to choose one that fits the needs of your school and budget. These carts contain:

• The highest circulating titles that are on sale
• Titles not currently in your collection
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid audiobooks that are OC/OU and will never expire!

The titles in these carts overlap, so please make sure to only purchase one of the carts! If you’d like something more custom, contact OverDrive for assistance. OverDrive will also be building price tiered carts for the May (YA) and June (Audiobook & Adult/HS Fiction) sales.

Something for Summer       

The free summer audiobook program, Audiobook SYNC, runs from April 28^th - August 17^th. Anyone aged 13+ can sign up via the linked website to have access to two free titles per week. There is an upcoming webinar that will share more details, and you can follow AudioFile's Twitter handle for updates.