OverDrive sees widespread growth in K-12 market for eBooks and digital content
12,000 Schools and districts choose OverDrive for a central digital content solution
Cleveland—January 21, 2015—OverDrive, the leading global distributor of digital media to schools and libraries, announced a record number of new K-12 partnerships in the U.S. and abroad in 2014. As of January 1, 2015, nearly 12,000 schools and districts have incorporated the OverDrive service into their curriculum and library plans, a 50% increase over the same time last year. OverDrive now works with K-12 partners in 38 countries, with 10 countries added to their global network in 2014.
OverDrive’s school eBook catalog has also reached record size, with 24% growth over the last year, adding more than 100,000 new titles and bringing the total digital catalog available to schools to more than 2 million titles. Audiobook availability has increased 15%, with more than 5,500 new titles available to school partners through OverDrive. Notable additions to the OverDrive catalog in 2014 included Macmillan and Pearson eTextbooks, and classic eBooks from Dr. Seuss. In addition, the 2014 acquisition of Teacher’s Notebook has given K-12 partners access to teacher-created curriculum materials from more than 500,000 educators. In 2014, OverDrive also introduced Narrated eBooks, a feature that provides a single eBook file synchronized with audio. Publishers supplied hundreds of popular children’s titles in this new format, which are now available for schools and libraries.
Students and educators are accessing OverDrive-powered websites and engaging with the school’s digital content more than ever before. The number of new visitors to these websites grew 234% to 2 million year-over-year, highlighting OverDrive’s expansion into new districts and an increase in engagement. The school digital content websites had 6.26 million visits in 2014, an increase of 276% over the previous year.
Visit booth #336 at FETC, January 20-23, to see demonstrations including fixed-layout titles and narrated eBooks, and learn more about a K-12 digital content solution from OverDrive.
About OverDrive
OverDrive is the leading global digital distribution platform, supplying the industry’s largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, music and streaming video to 33,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We support all major computers and devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, Nook®, Android™ phones and tablets, Chromebook™, and Kindle® (U.S. only). OverDrive offers all digital media on a single platform, and offers APIs to streamline a seamless user experience. OverDrive Read, the breakthrough EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience, now supports fixed layout and narrated eBooks. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA. www.overdrive.com
Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Marketing & Communications
dburleigh@overdrive.com
216-573-6886 ext. 218
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