Dorchester District 2 offers free online library to students
Glenn Huggins recently listened to the last book in the “Hunger Games” trilogy.
How to participate
Online books are available to Dorchester District 2 students and their families.
Students need to have a student identification number and visit dd2.lib.overdrive.com.
The software or app can be downloaded at this website.
Titles can be downloaded to personal computers, Macs or mobile devices.
Downloaded material automatically expires at the end of the lending period.
Berkeley County and Charleston County schools do not have the program, but public libraries do.
To download e-books, visit your county library website:
Charleston: www.ccpl.org
Dorchester: www.dcl.lib.sc.us
Berkeley: www.bcls.sc.gov
To check out and download, you need:
A valid library card
Internet access
A computer or device that meets the system requirements for the type(s) of materials you wish to download
Free software for the computer or device on which you wish to use the materials available at this site
Wanting to know more about Dorchester District 2’s new online library, the district’s own assistant superintendent of curriculum experimented by downloading “Mockingjay” as an audiobook.
“I wanted to check out how it worked,” he said. “It’s amazing what you can do through this site.”
The district recently launched an online library that allows students and their families free access to audiobooks and eBooks.
“We just see this as an extension of our media centers, another way to instill the love of reading in our students,” said Huggins. “We’re really excited about it.”
Growth in the district has made it a challenge for administrators to maintain literature and reference materials in school libraries. The Overdrive online library allows students access to a database of titles that may otherwise be unavailable.
Administrators heard about the program while visiting the Beaufort County School District.
They found similar programs in local public libraries, “but what we found was there were not lots of student titles,” said District Curriculum Technologies Facilitator Shelly Bostwick.
Media specialists from across the district selected 352 titles for the online library.
“The entire media specialist team came together to pick out the best quality stuff,” said Bostwick. “We definitely went for quality over quantity, and we have great titles. You can buy lots of books for $1,000, but I wanted to buy really good books for $1,000.”
Bostwick said the program has cost the district $13,800 so far, $6,900 as an annual fee and $6,900 for the books purchased.
“We’ve already had two elementary school PTAs ask if they can donate $1,000, knowing that money goes for books for any child in our district to read,” Bostwick said.
“We’re hoping that our PTAs will all want to do something as nice with a donation, because it will support their children.”
New titles will be added throughout the year as money becomes available.
Reach Brenda Rindge at 937-5713 or www.facebook.com/brindge.
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