Westchester Library System Teams Up with Southern Westchester BOCES to Enhance Reading and Literacy Through Ebooks and E-audiobooks

OverDrive’s Sora App.

In this mobile age, technology has become increasingly valuable in supporting all generations of lifelong learners and readers. Now, Westchester Library System (WLS) and Southern Westchester BOCES (SWBOCES) have formed an innovative new partnership using ebooks and e-audiobooks to modernize access to reading materials for students. This unique collaboration strives to promote literacy and digital learning by providing unprecedented access to both the library’s and the school’s digital reading resources in one app. The combination of convenience, ease of reading on-the-go, and the inherent popularity of technology inspires students to learn anytime, anywhere.

“This feature allows libraries to open access of age appropriate content to their local school districts that offer the app, Sora” says Terry Kirchner, WLS Executive Director. “It also allows students to access the library’s titles using their student credentials if they don’t already have a library card. It’s a win-win.”

The WLS and SWBOCES partnership provides safe access to thousands of age-appropriate titles for students’ use inside the classroom, at home and anywhere 24/7. Through Sora, the new student reading app for SWBOCES, students can now access and borrow from their school’s digital collection of classroom and pleasure reading materials AND the WLS member libraries’ juvenile and young adult digital collections. Students can easily log into the WLS member libraries’ digital collections using only their school credentials/student ID rather than requiring a separate library card. The following libraries and school districts are included in this collaboration:

Ardsley Public Library

Ardsley Union Free School District

Bronxville Public Library

Bronxville Union Free School District

Byram Hills Central School District

Dobbs Ferry Public Library

Dobbs Ferry Union Free School District

Edgemont Union Free School District

Greenburgh Public Library

Greenburgh Central School District

Hastings On Hudson Public Library

Hastings On Hudson Union Free School District

Irvington Public Library

Irvington Union Free School District

Larchmont Public Library

Mamaroneck Public Library District

Mamaroneck Union Free School District

Mount Pleasant Public Library

Mount Pleasant-Blythedale Union Free School District

Mount Vernon City School District  

Mount Vernon Public Library

North Castle Public Library

Port Chester Rye Brook Public Library

Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District

Rye City School District

Rye Free Reading Room

Rye Neck Union Free School District

Scarsdale Public Library

Scarsdale Union Free School District

Tarrytown Union Free School District

Tuckahoe Public Library

Tuckahoe Union Free School District

Valhalla Union Free School District

White Plains City School

White Plains Public Library

Warner Library

The entire community can access the WLS member libraries’ complete ebook and e-audiobook collection through the award-winning Libby app. Readers can use Libby on any major device or computer, including Apple ®, Android™ and Chromebook™, and “send to Kindle®” (US only).

The Sora app is available for SWBOCES students to download through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and on Chromebooks that support the Google Play Store. It is also available for use in web browsers at https://soraapp.com on any computer.

The award-winning Libby and Sora apps were built by OverDrive and OverDrive Education respectively. To learn more, visit https://meet.soraapp.com/ and https://meet.libbyapp.com/.