TeachersNotebook.com provides teacher-created resources to more than 500,000 educators

 

CLEVELAND—March 3, 2014—OverDrive announced today that it has acquired TeachersNotebook.com, a leading online marketplace for teacher-created curriculum materials for K-12 education. TeachersNotebook.com enables teachers to not only browse free and low-cost instructional resources, but also to create their own “shop” where others may purchase their original materials. The website operates with a “teachers helping teachers” mentality of engaging and educating students of all ages and optimizing the classroom experience.

TeachersNotebook.com was founded by Debbie and Steve Esemplare as a way to solve a need in the education space for shared classroom resources and an easily-accessible, collaborative environment. Debbie is a former New York City kindergarten teacher and Steve is a software developer. Together, they have grown TeachersNotebook.com to be one of the most widely-used online marketplaces for teacher-created educational materials. Debbie and Steve will continue to lead TeachersNotebook.com efforts while leveraging OverDrive’s reach in the K-12 market.

“This type of exposure for our shops is an absolutely amazing opportunity and something we could not pass up,” said Debbie Esemplare. “Giving teacher authors the biggest platform we can to share their resources has always been, and will always be, one of our primary goals.”

More than 550,000 teachers use TeachersNotebook.com as a collaboration, inspiration and marketplace hub for thousands of free curriculum materials as well as a growing catalog of more than 90,000 affordable educational resources aligned with Common Core state standards, subjects and targeted grade levels. Members of TeachersNotebook.com have access to products specific to their needs and classroom objectives. Those who create their own materials have the ability to open their own shop for free on the website for an opportunity to share their creations with the TeachersNotebook.com network and make a profit from their work.

Resources may be browsed and filtered by categories, such as art, homeschool, language, games, math or reading; by grade levels PreK through 12th grade; or by price. There are also daily deals, giveaways, teaching tips and a weekly newsletter that provides updates and special offers for members.

The acquisition gives TeachersNotebook.com exposure to OverDrive’s network of schools and libraries seeking educational materials, and is an important avenue for OverDrive to understand and engage with teachers in the classroom.  This agreement will further OverDrive’s commitment and success in bringing eBooks and digital content into K-12 classrooms. TeachersNotebook.com will remain a stand-alone subsidiary of OverDrive and continue operations on www.teachersnotebook.com.

 

About OverDrive

OverDrive is a leading multichannel digital platform for lending eBooks, audiobooks, music and video. We supply a secure lending platform for 28,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide with support for all major computers and devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, Nook®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindle® (U.S. only).  Recent enhancements to OverDrive’s platform include multilingual user interface support, Streaming Video, in-library touchscreen stations for browsing and instant sampling of eBooks or audiobooks, and OverDrive Read, the company’s EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience.

OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry and is a member of the 2012 Technology Fast 500. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland. www.overdrive.com.

About Teachers Notebook

Teachers Notebook hosts an online venue where teacher shopkeepers share and sell hand-crafted, classroom tested resources with their peers. The site gives an educator access to instructional materials at a reasonable price, saving an enormous amount of time and money.

We strive to provide an easily accessible place for hard working teachers from around the world to gather, learn, and inspire each other. Our continuing goal is to give teachers the necessary tools to better connect with students and optimize the classroom experience. www.teachersnotebook.com.

Contact:

David Burleigh

Director of Marketing

OverDrive, Inc.

216-573-6886 x218

dburleigh@overdrive.com

 

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