Sora is an ebook platform schools use to access 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! If students login and start looking at the collection, they will see books that are available from two consortium collections, and they’ll see free books that Sora annually offers to schools. They may see around 5,000 books. If they add IndyPL as a library, IndyPL has more than 41,000 children’s and teen’s ebooks and eaudiobooks available.
Here’s a PowerPoint you can use to introduce Sora to staff.
The IndyPL books are available if you Add a Library!
IndySchool Share allows schools to leverage their resources. They pay an annual per student fee, and then schools decide how to spend the money. Districts can also purchase books and put them in the district pool to be shared among all schools in the district. We advise that individual schools not purchase books.
We value two other things about Sora: 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.
NOTE: Libby and Sora are not the same. Libby is the ebook app for public library patrons, not school patrons. There is no way to curate Libby for students. Sora is curated by grade level bands. In addition, Sora provides access to about 5,000 more books for schools than Libby does!