Delaware County Libraries Teams Up with Ridley High School to Expand Access to eBooks and Digital Audiobooks for Students
Released: April 15, 2021
Shared goal to provide digital materials in the community, especially during remote learning
As educators seek more creative ways to support students’ learning, the local public library has emerged as a key resource to accomplish this goal. Recently, Delaware County Libraries and Ridley High School formed an innovative new partnership to increase students’ access to eBooks and digital audiobooks by combining the Library’s and Ridley High School’s digital reading resources in one app. This Public Library CONNECT partnership is facilitated by OverDrive, the popular digital reading platform serving both the public library system and school.
The library-school partnership provides safe access to thousands of age-appropriate titles for students’ use inside the classroom, at home and anywhere 24/7. Through Sora, the new student reading app for Ridley High School, students can now borrow from the school’s collection of classroom and pleasure reading titles as well as from Delaware County Libraries’ juvenile and young adult digital collection. Students can easily log into the library’s digital collection through Sora using their school credentials rather than requiring a separate library card. In addition, Sora supports teachers by offering education-specific tools, including achievements, exportable notes, and reading progress that encourage individualized learning.
“We are excited to be working with Ridley High School to expand eBook and audiobook offerings to students,” says Delaware County Libraries Director Catherine Bittle. “Through Public Library CONNECT we are able to offer students access to our digital collection regardless of whether they have a library card, giving them more choice of titles, with the goal that students will read more!”
Amy Pickett, Ridley High School Librarian, added, “Sora, our one-tap reading app, connects students and staff with our digital lending library of eBooks and audiobooks. This resource has proven especially essential throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as students learning remotely have been able to continue accessing books for assignments and enjoyment reading. Public Library CONNECT will expand the titles available to students, and set them on a path to becoming lifelong readers and public library patrons!”
The Sora app was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions 2019 and is available for Ridley High School students to download through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and on Chromebooks that support the Google Play Store. It is also available for use in web browsers at https://soraapp.com on any computer.The entire Delaware County community can also borrow and read Delaware County Libraries’ complete eBook and digital audiobook collection with a valid library card through the award-winning Libby app. The library’s locally selected collection offers digital books and magazines including bestsellers and new releases. Readers of all ages can select from virtually every subject ranging from mystery, romance, children’s, business and more. Libby can be used on any major device or computer, including Apple (R), Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle(R) (U.S. only).
The Libby and Sora apps were built by OverDrive and OverDrive Education respectively. To learn more, visit www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/ and https://company.overdrive.com/k-12-schools/discover-sora/.
