What is OverDrive?
OverDrive is a free service offered by your district that lets you borrow digital content (like eBooks and audiobooks) anytime, anywhere. Every OverDrive collection is slightly different because each library or school picks digital content they want for the users. For those of you who cannot go to Kearney, or other towns close by, this is a great opportunity to give your children a chance to read books that we may not have in our physical library at SEM. I hope you enjoy the wide variety of books!!
How do I access OverDrive for my kids?
1. Click on Overdrive (Nebraska Portal)
2. Select or start typing in under Select your district or organization To Log In ..... Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Public Schools
3. Type in your student's school email ([email protected])
4. Enter the password your student uses for their chromebook. (ask their home room teacher if you do not remember--if they do not know the librarian can reset the password)
5. Click on Overdrive when you get to SEM Public Schools portal page.
Things to note about OverDrive:
-- You may check out 3 books at a time without worrying about late fees! Each book is set to be checked out for 2 weeks. When that time is up the book will return on it's own. If you would like to keep reading the book you may. Simply go back into OverDrive, find the book, check it out again, and pick up where you left off!
-- You can extend check out times or shorten them if you would like to do so. Click on the account icon at the top of the screen. On the right, you will see your check outs, holds (reserving books), lists (favorites), history and settings. Go to settings and at the top you will see the options for lending periods. Some books will NOT let you change the lending duration but this is a nice feature of Overdrive that the librarian loves!
-- If you go to collections you will find set collections of books created by the district. These books are organized by their themes (ex. Lol! (humor), Hogwarts (Harry Potter), and more!
--If you would like to find books that are easier or harder, you can easily filter books according to their interest (or reading) level. At the top of your screen you will see the tabs for collections, subjects, and levels. When you go to levels you will see interest level at the top of the drop-down menu. When you click on it you will be taken to another page. Scroll down and on the left side you will see a section for different interest levels: Lower Grades (K-3), Middle Grades (4-8), Middle Grades + (6-12), and Upper Grades (9-12).
--ATOS Level is the book level. If you have a child that needs to read for AR points, please consider using this feature as well. Each child takes a test at the beginning of each semester that gives them an idea of where they are at reading-wise. If you click on ATOS Level (found under levels) you should be able to click on the book level range that your child fits in. Of course, I also encourage kids to read what they like!
--OverDrive will work on any device (phones, tablets, computers, etc) HOWEVER it will not take you to our collection unless you use the link provided above in the SEM Cloud Portal. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future.
-- Last, but not least, each student has their own account. If you have more than one child please take these warnings into consideration. If you save your email and password when you sign in, it will not matter if you try and sign in with other credentials. It will remember the last person that signed in instead. There is also very little to no clues whether you are on the right account unless you check the books that you currently have or you have changed the theme for one and not the other. I recommend NOT saving emails and passwords or using different browsers if needed.
ENJOY YOUR BOOKS!!!!
OverDrive is a free service offered by your district that lets you borrow digital content (like eBooks and audiobooks) anytime, anywhere. Every OverDrive collection is slightly different because each library or school picks digital content they want for the users. For those of you who cannot go to Kearney, or other towns close by, this is a great opportunity to give your children a chance to read books that we may not have in our physical library at SEM. I hope you enjoy the wide variety of books!!
How do I access OverDrive for my kids?
1. Click on Overdrive (Nebraska Portal)
2. Select or start typing in under Select your district or organization To Log In ..... Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Public Schools
3. Type in your student's school email ([email protected])
4. Enter the password your student uses for their chromebook. (ask their home room teacher if you do not remember--if they do not know the librarian can reset the password)
5. Click on Overdrive when you get to SEM Public Schools portal page.
Things to note about OverDrive:
-- You may check out 3 books at a time without worrying about late fees! Each book is set to be checked out for 2 weeks. When that time is up the book will return on it's own. If you would like to keep reading the book you may. Simply go back into OverDrive, find the book, check it out again, and pick up where you left off!
-- You can extend check out times or shorten them if you would like to do so. Click on the account icon at the top of the screen. On the right, you will see your check outs, holds (reserving books), lists (favorites), history and settings. Go to settings and at the top you will see the options for lending periods. Some books will NOT let you change the lending duration but this is a nice feature of Overdrive that the librarian loves!
-- If you go to collections you will find set collections of books created by the district. These books are organized by their themes (ex. Lol! (humor), Hogwarts (Harry Potter), and more!
--If you would like to find books that are easier or harder, you can easily filter books according to their interest (or reading) level. At the top of your screen you will see the tabs for collections, subjects, and levels. When you go to levels you will see interest level at the top of the drop-down menu. When you click on it you will be taken to another page. Scroll down and on the left side you will see a section for different interest levels: Lower Grades (K-3), Middle Grades (4-8), Middle Grades + (6-12), and Upper Grades (9-12).
--ATOS Level is the book level. If you have a child that needs to read for AR points, please consider using this feature as well. Each child takes a test at the beginning of each semester that gives them an idea of where they are at reading-wise. If you click on ATOS Level (found under levels) you should be able to click on the book level range that your child fits in. Of course, I also encourage kids to read what they like!
--OverDrive will work on any device (phones, tablets, computers, etc) HOWEVER it will not take you to our collection unless you use the link provided above in the SEM Cloud Portal. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future.
-- Last, but not least, each student has their own account. If you have more than one child please take these warnings into consideration. If you save your email and password when you sign in, it will not matter if you try and sign in with other credentials. It will remember the last person that signed in instead. There is also very little to no clues whether you are on the right account unless you check the books that you currently have or you have changed the theme for one and not the other. I recommend NOT saving emails and passwords or using different browsers if needed.
ENJOY YOUR BOOKS!!!!