“Empower students, make a connection, and excite them”: Meet Delaware Librarian Harry Brake [Sora Spotlight]
The Sora Spotlight series profiles educators who’ve become Sora champions at their school, impressing us with their creative strategies to get more students reading digitally. To inspire us all to find new ways to reach learners across our communities, we’ve asked them to share their stories of reading success.
In this special Sora Spotlight subseries, we’re focusing on educators within a shared collection that are Sora champions at their school.
This month, we’re spotlighting educators from schools participating in the Delaware Accelerate Learning collection. The Delaware Department of Education has selected Sora as their preferred digital reading platform for their K-12 learning community. All elementary, middle and high schools in the state can access Sora for their required curriculum reading, as well as other student favorites.
Educator Stats:
Name:
Harry Brake
Describe Your Position:
I am the Library Media Specialist at Woodbridge High School, a public high school located in Greenwood, DE. (Woodbridge is a) School Choice School where students can transfer from other districts and from our district to other districts. Our school district is very down-to-earth, meaning it is made up of local residents’ families as well as individuals that have just moved to the area as our Delaware population grows. We have a diverse body of students (interests in agriculture, business, sports, medicine, specific academic focuses), with a tight-knit community of educators that work together across the schools. There are many opportunities in this small rural community, both in school and outside of school.
Our school library is a hub for organizations and activities. It’s also a location for students to relax during lunch, to meet and find resources for research, and borrow ebooks from our 10,828-strong (and growing!) collection of resources. We’re a member of the Delaware Consortium, where individuals can borrow from other public / school libraries up and down the state. Students can visit the library throughout the day with passes, during lunch, for appointments before school, and afterwards.
As of late, the library has partnered with students to get a book in their hands, of their interest, once every nine weeks – for the joy of getting into something they enjoy. During that every-nine-week encounter, a new skill is presented (such as searching databases, searching the library catalog efficiently, and finding resources to access magazines online), all under the broad spectrum of research and literacy.
How many years have you been active with OverDrive?
In 2021 the state of Delaware partnered with Sora and the last four years have been the most active for my use and involvement with Sora.
What are you currently reading?
Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Alicia Miles
Harry’s Sora Story
Why do you love Sora?
I love the fact that librarianship and literacy can be emphasized and utilized for countless audiences of students. In the past, we have relied on Sora to:
- Supplement for vision-impaired students.
- Encourage checking out themes and topics electronically that lead to choices in physical books that students have never encountered.
- Tease readers with audiobooks when they are on the move across the state or even country.
It is easy to see that what I love about Sora is that, used creatively, it is a supplement to reading and literacy – not a replacement.
What unique things have you done to help increase student engagement with Sora?
Believe it or not, we are just touching the surface of what is possible with literacy with Sora as a tool.
- When promoting to all students to obtain a free Library Card for Library Card month (signing them up for these in September), Sora became a powerful accompaniment to that process.
- We create monthly themes tied to the library (School Library Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Poetry Month, and more) for displays in our school lobby and we find ways to represent electronic choices alongside the physical choices.
- When we’re preparing for an author to visit for one of our student podcasts, we can check out books (by that author) ahead of time thanks to Sora.
- The ability to provide another way to access books outside of school and inside the classroom for curriculum choices has changed the landscape of how anyone can access literacy anytime and anywhere, especially when budgetary concerns exist for specific disciplines. Many times, teachers have asked for additional copies for students as part of a themed unit in a specific discipline.
- Being able to ask for any book for students with an impairment has been crucial. It has emphasized that there is a resource and book for anyone, anywhere when asked for.
- Being a rural community, we face challenges (even today) with Wi-Fi and internet connections. Sora can help overcome this challenge, allowing students to access resources from the library and classroom.
- Asking students to select a book of their choice every nine weeks has opened the door to introduce Sora. A small “business card” with details on how to access Sora is being created to put into the hands of every student.
- As a part of the Delaware Consortium, it is vital to be able to provide any book to any patron when it is desired or needed. Promoting literacy up and down the state is easier when a patron is able to find access (to a book) immediately in Sora. Showing how to use Sora for various professional development opportunities and literacy workshops/conferences has given us one more tool to empower and show the need for certified librarians in schools across the state. Being able to find creative ways to use Sora and connect with specific disciplines, as well as with different language users, has been a game-changer for me as a librarian.
In what ways has this been successful?
Students, even with the advent of so many technological possibilities, were burned out for a while on technology following COVID-era education. However, even before 2020, at least with our rural community, patrons were still more interested in the physical book than a digital version.
Currently, students are gaining momentum in (understanding) what and how they can access titles through Sora. Much of that has to do with a collective emphasis on why literacy makes a difference to those from all backgrounds – the international student, the farming family student, those headed to an internship, apprenticeship, or to college or university, and especially to those answering the call to a specific vocational skill.
Have you worked with anyone in your building to use Sora for curriculum? Are there any ways that you’ve found to get teachers and students using Sora in the classroom?
Yes! We have worked closely with several English teachers and a teacher for a student with visual challenges. This is a way we can get a book in the hands of a teacher and a student to keep a themed lesson moving forward. More than that essential part of curriculum, we want to find deeper connections to literacy by finding topics student have NOT thought of, using Sora as an experimental dive into connections, just as they would use a database for research!
What are the benefits of belonging to a shared collection for your students and teachers?
A wider spectrum of patrons and interests are represented. Sora helps introduce physical texts to a collection, as well as providing an alternate source of reading and discovery. Extending the resources of a patron, discovering diverse connections to topics, providing diverse learners a variety of paths (audio/digital), and introducing a cornucopia of themes are the major areas that can change patrons’ use of Sora. The wider audience base involved with Sora helps create more community advocates for the library when community members understand, on a deeper level, how educators and librarians work together to inform patrons of all ages of the truer, more reliable resources amid a sea of confusing and often incorrect resources.
Has being part of the consortium helped you achieve goals that would have been challenging to accomplish independently?
Absolutely, yes! It has increased our circulation and shareable resources triple! Currently, we are at the highest amount of circulation for our individual library in the seven years I have been in this position as Library Media Specialist.
Are there any success stories or notable examples of how the collection has made a difference?
The individual requests I have received from a current student at our school who relies on digital resources (as he is visually impaired) have changed my view of how we utilize digital resources. Traditionally, I have always been on the side of, “I would rather have a physical book any day than any other version.” However, seeing how (this student) responds to the digital versions of books that he can play out loud, I have begun to realize how Sora and resources within Sora can enhance the patron experience for any reader.
Get to know Harry
What is your favorite/most memorable reading moment with a student?
Several of these moments are via individuals this year who I have NEVER seen in the library, or individuals that chose a book they initially felt awkward about (as it was deemed by others as below their ability). They expect judgement will be passed on them, and when it is not, they understand they can read ANYTHING they want. Then, their defenses begin to lower, and I can suggest increasingly challenging books ALONGSIDE the books they love to read. This changes how people feel about reading and reduces frustration and the feeling that they must force themselves through a book they do not love.
As librarians, the individuals who never frequent the library and the individuals who come to the library with a distaste for reading are some of the most powerful advocates FOR literacy. These moments when they become return patrons and they choose more and more books, knowing no one is judging them based on their decisions, are priceless. That click! of understanding, and their realization that as a librarian I just want them to appreciate the freedom of choice they have and act on it, is priceless.
What is the most important thing you hope your students take away from reading/education?
It is not one-dimensional. The fact and fallacy that I grew up with is that you are either good at reading or bad at reading. Not a reality once you have someone willing to help you connect in a personal way to how reading can enhance your apprenticeship, vocational career, lab experiment, college plans, thesis / argument process, or creative writing project, to just name a few areas. Reading and education CAN be exciting, stimulating, motivating, healing and inspirational when introduced in a way that matches the interests of any individual of any age.
What advice do you have for new educators/librarians with a digital collection?
Sora is an example of a tool that has multiple capabilities to plan what you want to happen in your library. Asking a student to sit down and try out Sora and offering ways that this tool can reach other students is a way educators/librarians can empower students, make a connection, and excite them into what literacy offers.
Never shy away from learning how an already established tool like Sora can offer a path to strengthen your library collection, ties to faculty and their curriculum, and ability to reach students at every age and grade level. Think outside of the box with every tool available, act as if it is the only tool available for a week, and you will find ways to super-size the abilities and reach of your library and your role as librarian.
