By: Melissa Marin, OverDrive Marketing Specialist

Do you offer Spanish language content in your OverDrive collection? Our recent live special webcast, Building a Dynamic Digital Spanish Collection, highlighted our strong and growing catalog of over 55,000 Spanish language titles available for purchase in OverDrive Marketplace and shared some tips for how to make the most of that collection and better connect with the Hispanic and Latino communities in your area.

spanish eBooks graphicMissed the webcast? You can view it now on-demand by visiting our Resource Center. Check out our Staff Training resources and click the Past Webcasts tab to view the PDF or watch a recording of the training.

Here are 5 takeaways from the training that you can start using now:

  1. Learn about your Spanish speaking community. Pew Research Center analysis shows that Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. so it is likely that you have Spanish speakers at your library. You can use standard tools like census data and The American Community Survey (ACS) as well as thorough continuous exploration of community sources to learn more about the demographics in your area.
  2. Discover Spanish content in OverDrive Marketplace. Using the Advanced Search feature in Marketplace, you can search for Spanish and Castilian content and sort by Popularity by Sales. This will give insight into what other libraries are purchasing. You will see a broad selection of genres and you can use the filtering facets to find different types of content from translations of popular English language books to language learning titles to titles originally written in Spanish.
  3. Make informed and diverse purchasing decisions with Recommended Lists. Our Spanish & other world languages recommended list in the Resource Center offers a large assortment of handpicked titles, including bestsellers from Latin America & Spain. If you’re focusing on younger readers, check out the Languages & Learning recommended list we’ve curated with a K-12 audience in mind.
  4. Consider a multilingual user interface for your OverDrive collection. Did you know it was free to add a Spanish interface to your site, allowing users to navigate the digital collection in their preferred language? It’s another way outside of expanding your content choices to appeal to a broader audience and make it easier for them to enjoy your eBooks and audiobooks.
  5. Get the word out with Spanish marketing materials. We have digital and print promotional resources available in Spanish for libraries and schools in our LOTE Marketing Kits in the Resource Center. This opens the door to reach out to native Spanish speakers and to feature your Spanish language titles more prominently.

Contact your OverDrive Account Specialist if you have any questions about marketing or adding a new user language option to your site. Bookmark the Resource Center and check back often to see the latest in recommended lists, staff training resources and marketing materials!