Introducing Check Out Your Library!

August 2, 2024

We all know how valuable libraries are for communities. Now it’s time to make some noise and share all the cool and unique resources available at your library with the Check Out Your Library (COYL) movement.

Designed to encourage new and returning patrons to explore the amazing resources at your library, COYL is a multiyear program created to support and promote library services. With COYL, it’s never been easier to drive awareness and increase foot traffic using digital campaigns, events, social media, press and outreach, and more.

We’re even hitting the road with our new OverDrive LV (formally the Digital Bookmobile) on a Fiction and Film Tour! Check out our upcoming stops here.

Top 6 ways you can participate:

Use #CheckOutYourLibrary hashtag on social media when promoting your programs and services.
Visit the OverDrive Resource Center to download the COYL marketing kit. Inside you’ll find social images you can personalize right in Canva, printable posters and fliers, a logo kit, programming guide, and more.
Customize the fliers and posters in the marketing kit to announce upcoming author events, book clubs, hot new titles added to the collection, and more!
Reintroduce the library to the community by organizing pop-ups at community events, parks, local fairs, and farmers markets to increase visibility. You can find tablecloth designs, banners, stickers, and more in the programming guide on the Resource Center.
Include the COYL logos on your own internal programming guide for patrons. Add it to photos and graphics you post on social media, shelf talkers in your physical branch, and your library’s website.
Customize the marketing kit bookmark and print several to include in the books in your branch or have on the circulation desk when patrons check out a title.

For over 20 years, OverDrive has been proud to serve as your partner as we advance digital reading. Today that partnership expands with COYL as we introduce tools to help you maximize the value of your digital and physical collections. To complement the effort, we are securing partnerships with publishers, launching social media and digital campaigns, and reaching out to press to help drive awareness at the regional and national level to your library. Working together, we can continue to attract, engage, and delight your patrons and champion the importance of libraries and librarians like you.

Tagged Under

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A newly published research study from the American Association of School Librarians’ peer-reviewed online journal, School Library Research, investigates self-censorship of controversial topics in collection development. In “To Add or Not to Add: An Examination of Self‐Censoring Behaviors among School Librarians,” information science professors Jennifer Moore and Alissa Tudor use survey data to examine which controversial or frequently challenged topics school librarians chose not to collect. The research found that there were high amounts of self-censorship around books that dealt with sexual content, abortion, and self-harm.

American Association of School Librarians, Dec. 3; School Library Research, Volume 27
22h

Frank Strong writes: “Day one of pre-filing of bills for the 2025 Texas legislative session treated us with several attempts to further restrict reading rights for Texans. The headliner of those bills is House Bill 183, which would enable the State Board of Education to review and remove books from all public schools in the state, essentially creating a statewide banned books list. But it won’t be the only one. Below are six more antibook bills you should watch out for—and publicize, and speak out against, and fight—in the new year.”

Anger & Clarity, Nov. 29
2d

“In today’s society, libraries stand out as among the last truly public institutions. Providing access to resources without financial, social, or physical barriers, public libraries make a unique contribution to promoting individual and collective flourishing throughout the communities they serve. The New York Public Library’s Strategy and Public Impact team and the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center in Philadelphia have released a new report as part of an ongoing collaboration to study and advocate for the role of public libraries in the communities they serve.”

New York Public Library, Nov.
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ALA’s Games & Gaming Round Table announced the winners of its 2024 Platinum Play Hall of Fame Awards on December 2, representing the best games for library collections or programming released in the last two to 10 years. The “Platys” Class of 2024 includes longstanding favorites such as Splendor and Azul, approachable program-friendly titles like Just One and Exploding Kittens, the tournament-friendly Super Smash Bros. Melee, geolocation game Pokémon Go, and ‘80s throwback RPG Kids on Bikes.

ALA Games and Gaming Round Table, Dec. 2
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Samantha Kretschmer writes: “A staff survey conducted by administration at my library two years ago pointed to a general feeling of discontent amongst staff. The administration formed a Staff Advisory committee, which I was tasked with chairing. The point of this committee was to promote understanding and cooperation between the various branches and departments of the library; to promote productive cooperation between staff, management, and administration; to provide a place for a constructive exchange of ideas; to serve as a channel for staff questions, comments, and concerns; and to help create a community amongst staff.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 28
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James Folta writes: “Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), a coalition of writers and creative workers who ‘stand united against the deeply unconstitutional movement to limit the freedom to read,’ released an open letter on social media November 25 demanding publishers prepare for the incoming Trump administration. The AABB conducted open forums with authors, and compiled their concerns and demands for the coming years. The letter outlines collective worries about the Trump administration and its threats, and how authors hope the corporations they work with will counter those coming dangers.”

Literary Hub, Nov. 26
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Rose Horowitch writes: “An alarming phenomenon has sprung up over the past few years: Many students are arriving at college unprepared to read entire books. The problem does not appear to be that ‘kids these days’ are incurious or uninterested in reading. Instead, young people might be responding to a cultural message: Books just aren’t that important. The professors I spoke with didn’t think their students were lazy. They saw that their students’ schedules are crowded with activities that are less about personal development and more relevant to future employment.”

The Atlantic, Nov. 29