By: Liz Congdon, Account Manager, and Kristen Griesmer, Product Support Specialist

When we consider our health, we think about many things. Am I nourishing my body? Am I moving in new ways to see maximum results? Am I checking in on my progress?

Your digital collection is similar. Through proper supply, usage and evaluation, it can thrive. But, how do you measure it? The answer lies in OverDrive Marketplace’s Insights and Reports.

Health at a glance

To evaluate your progress toward a thriving collection, use the Insights page to see current statistics on usage in an easy-to-read way.
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    • Need to provide information on how you have invested in your students? View the current number of titles in your collection by format. Simply look at the “Titles in my Collection” section to view both your titles and copies for your reporting needs!
    • Wondering how you can help get more titles in the hands of students? Look to the last line of the Insights page to find out your current average waiting period. If it’s looking a little high to you, take a closer look by clicking on the “Current holds” report on the left side of the page. Find some titles in this report that may need additional copies to meet the needs of your students.
    • Curious about how many students are using your collection right now? Quickly view the current number of checkouts, holds and unique users in the blue bar at the top of the report. Adjust the time period to reflect the data you’re searching for – perhaps you’re curious how your checkouts have grown this month compared to last month, or this school year in general.

Once you’ve evaluated your data, print the page off and march right down to your superior’s office to show them how great you’re doing! Your report will provide simple, digestible data for them to sink their teeth into. Green smoothies for all!

Reading Data

A quick one-pager is great for a fast evaluation, but what if you want to dive deeper into the health of your collection? The new Sora Activity Reading Data charts provide many insightful data points on how your students are reading and if you’re meeting student needs.

Anytime you begin a new initiative, it’s always important to check if it’s working and has a positive impact on growth. This could be a new promotion, a new reading challenge or a program like Summer Reading. Sora Activity data allows you to analyze your progress and identify areas for improvement.

Here are some additional ways to implement the new data:

    • How about School Reading Challenges? Use the “Total Books Opened” and “Total Time Read” charts to monitor your district-wide reading challenge. Break the data down even further, and determine how much each building has increased their reading by filtering by date and branch.* This will also work if you have your branches separated by grade level and do a grade level challenge!
    • Did you beat the Summer Slide? Set the filters by specifics dates to determine how much students read over the summer months. Did they take advantage of the Summer Reading program? If there is increased activity, what incentives can you provide for their hard work? If there was not a lot of activity, what goals can you make for next summer?
    • Are you reaching all your students? Use “Average time per book by audience” to determine what subjects are circulating. If juvenile students at the elementary schools are reading more than the adult audience, it’s safe to assume you need to spend some more time or have new ideas to reach those high school students. Is a goal to do more promotion in the high school? Does your collection need more titles that are attractive to high school students? How can you engage the staff to increase usage in that subject or audience?
    • What are your students reading? “Average time per book by format” not only allows you to see which type of book your readers are most interested in, but, if you filter it by audience, it can also influence your purchasing trends. If you’re seeing a spike in audiobooks among your young adult readers, it’s a good idea to add more audiobooks at that level to your collection.

image *To set up branch reporting or Content Access Levels to filter by audience or branch, please contact your Product Support Specialist.

Get healthy, stay healthy readers! Keep up with past Sora tips and be on the look out for more to come!