Axis 360 is an ebook platform where IndyPL offers its collection of children’s and teen ebooks and eaudiobooks. Books can be read or listened to in your browser or on an app. They can be downloaded for reading or listening to offline, too! IndyPL has more than 41,000 children’s and teen’s ebooks and eaudiobooks available on its three sites:
Kids: https://indyplkids.axis360.baker-taylor.com/
Teens: https://indyplteens.axis360.baker-taylor.com/
Combined kids and teens: http://indypl.axis360.baker-taylor.com/
How is Axis 360 Community Share Different from Axis 360 with IndyPL?
Community Share adds another few book buckets underneath what IndyPL offers.
The IndyPL books are available to all Community Share sites. There are another 1,500 titles with 5,800 copies available in a Shared Pool. The Shared Pool is how schools share books with other schools.
We’ve also used grant money to purchase multiple copies of titles recommended by teachers for use with small groups or classrooms.
Schools that join Axis 360 Community Share often transfer all the ebooks they own directly into the Shared Pool. All members of Community Share are expected to purchase ebooks and share them with others after the immediate need at their school/district has been met.
Districts should purchase books and put them in the district pool to be shared among all schools in the district.
Axis 360 allows IndyPL to keep all of its kids and teen ebooks and downloadable audiobooks on a separate platform from our adult titles. That makes sharing them with schools easier for everyone. Community Share, schools sharing amongst, each other is unique to the Axis 360 platform.
We value two other things about Axis 360: student privacy and student choice. No one can see what borrowers check out unless it is part of an assignment. And no one can limit by reading level what students check out to read on their own. We absolutely support teachers requiring students to read particular books, or books in a particular reading range, during class time. We also support student independence in what they read on their own time. Research shows that providing a wide range of engaging materials to read will encourage students to spend more time reading, and the more they read, the better readers they become.
NOTE: Looking up a book on an IndyPL site will not show you the total number of copies available to students at your school. You must look at your school site to see that.