1. OverDrive and Albemarle County Public Schools
Erica Thorsen
January 2019

2. Albemarle County Public Schools
Located in Central Virginia
Rural, suburban and urban settings
Serves almost 14,000 students
English language learners - 9.7%
Economically disadvantaged %
Students with disabilities %

3. Before
Previous State
Bookshare and Learning Ally used for students with IEPs and 504s.
Some libraries purchased Play-a-ways.
Some libraries offered Kindles with pre-loaded titles.
Relied on Jefferson Madison Regional Library’s Overdrive service.
Relied on titles available in the public domain.
Relied on methods with questionable copyright.

4. Pilot Program
Based on both anecdotal evidence and scholarly research, ACPS leadership dedicated funds toward a 6th - 12th grade pilot program.
As librarian at largest high school and one of the PLC leads, I was asked to administer the pilot.

5. Marketing Simple Signage Complex Emails to faculty and staff
s to librarians
Signage
Shelf markers - added QR codes that will take the user to the title on Overdrive
Complex
Student made commercial

6. Implementation Nuts and Bolts Barriers 6th - 12th grades
Selection process
Books available through
School library catalog
Customized Overdrive website
Sora app
Barriers
Teacher pushback

7. Literature Circles As a school division Challenge Solution
Movement away from whole class novels to choice-based literature circles
Movement towards books that contemporary texts that feature diverse characters
Challenge
Funds to acquire new titles
Management of smaller batches of more titles
Solution
Books can be ordered quickly
Teachers or librarians request amount of eBooks/ Audiobooks needed
Groups and assigned titles are managed through Title Assignments

8. Results Increased access to audiobooks Increased circulation
Increased student requests
Increased teacher requests for both individual titles and literature circle titles

9. Resources Benefits of Audiobooks for All Readers
Is Listening to an Audiobook Cheating?
To Your Brain, Listening to a Book Is Pretty Much the Same as Reading It
Lamb, Annette. "Listeners' Advisory Part 3: Audiobooks across the Curriculum." Teacher Librarian, vol. 45, no. 4, 2018, p