Educational Technology at IU13

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. 

With most student checkouts already happening in Sora, OverDrive will soon start the process of retiring the legacy OverDrive app and encouraging all students to use Sora as the primary app to enjoy your digital collection.

The first step will be to remove the OverDrive app from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store starting February 23, 2022. At the same time, the download links for the legacy OverDrive desktop app for Windows and Mac will be removed from overdrive.com/apps.

How this initial change will impact users

• Current OverDrive app users (mobile and desktop) can continue to use the app.
• New users looking for the OverDrive app will be directed to Sora.
• All users can continue to use, borrow, and open titles from your school’s .lib.overdrive.com OverDrive website via a browser until we begin further migration to Sora.

What happens next
Your school should actively promote Sora and remove references to the OverDrive app from school websites and promotional materials. In future phases, we will encourage OverDrive app users to switch to Sora, with a goal of moving most over by the end of 2022. We are committed to supporting a smooth transition for you and your students and will send you updates on the plans and timing for the eventual retirement of the OverDrive app.

Learn about Sora with step-by-step short, informative lessons that are part of OverDrive's free self-paced trainings: Getting Started with Sora - for Educators and Getting Started with Sora - for Students

Pick and choose the features and lessons you’re interested in, and complete them in any order you like. Modules are unique self-serve learning experience that includes a variety of media such as text and images, videos and audio, knowledge checks, links to additional resources and other interactive blocks. 

This year, OverDrive has added the Sora for Classrooms and Curriculum self-paced training module to help educators explore the use of Sora’s flexible reading tools for lesson planning, curriculum development and more.  At-a-glance, K-12 staff can discover how Sora’s features connect to classrooms and curriculum with this editable chart.