On May 27, the Temple City Unified Schools Foundations approved a grant that provided money to start the Overdrive ebook program for the secondary schools in the district, with a system similar to that of the LA County.
Instructional Resource Specialist Ms. Margo Butera and Oak Avenue Librarian Ms. Jeanette Johnson wrote and submitted the grant on March 1 and later gave a presentation on a May 1 Foundation meeting. The ebooks will be bought individually with the $4000 they received from the grant.
“Out of 117 books, most of them are already checked out,” Ms. Butera said. “Kids are now reading more, who otherwise might not be interested in reading.”
Each book ranges from $8 to $85 and the copies are either yearly or metered. Metered check-outs occur when the library buys more copies on a need-based system. The most popular ebook is “The Fault in Our Stars,” with a total of 17 people on hold.
Project Gutenburg is a free program which can be easily used via Overdrive. It features approximately 20,000 to 40,000 classic novels such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which are handy for use in classrooms or AP and Honors classes.
“Overdrive is great because of its accessibility,” Ms. Butera said. “People can check out books even after the library is closed, and in the summer as well.”
The program was initially inspired by the CLC’s lack of a library, but it has now expanded to Oak Avenue Intermediate and TCHS. Students can access the ebooks on the Overdrive app by typing in their student ID. Ebooks checked out must be returned in two weeks, and can only be renewed once.
Ms. Butera plans to expand the library even more in the future and get more research books, as opposed to the majority of fiction novels on campus.
“I would like to try several of my new, crazy ideas,” Ms. Butera said. “Overdrive is just the start, and my main goal is to just keep updating the library.”
In the future, Ms. Butera also plans to create a music database for students and have soundtracks to different novels. By next year, the library will be having its first annual book fair. If the school raises $1000 worth of books, 20 percent of the earnings will go towards buying more novels.
Another aspect of the new ebook program consists of the audio book sync system. This online website is a separate reading program, and both audiobooks and ebooks create a more enhanced reading experience.
Audiobooks are more expensive through the Overdrive program, but are free with audiobooksync.com.