Humble ISD Teams Up with Harris County Public Library to Modernize Reading and Literacy Through eBooks and Audiobooks
Shared goal to promote digital learning in the community
Style Magazine Newswire | 4/21/2020, 10:02 a.m.
In this mobile age, technology has become increasingly valuable in supporting new generations of lifelong learners and readers. Now, Humble ISD and Harris County Public Library (HCPL) have formed an innovative new partnership using eBooks and digital 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 schools’ and HCPL’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 partnership provides safe access to thousands of age-appropriate titles for students’ use inside the classroom, at home and anywhere 24/7. Through the student reading app Sora, Humble ISD students can now borrow the school’s collection of classroom and pleasure reading, and also access HCPL’s juvenile and young adult digital collection. In addition, Sora supports teachers by offering education-specific tools like achievements, exportable notes, and reading progress that encourage individualized learning.
“We’re very happy to be the first in the Houston area to partner with Sora and Harris County Public Library,” Terry Perkins, Deputy Superintendent at Humble ISD, said. “This partnership is a win for our students, teachers and community. It will give our students more opportunities to read, research and learn by providing access to more free eBooks and audiobooks."
"OverDrive – the creator of Sora – is a valued partner in our mission to provide access to resources that enrich lives and strengthen communities, and we are very excited to help increase access to age appropriate eBooks and audiobooks for Humble ISD students with Sora,” Amber Seely, Harris County Public Library Division Director, Collections & Technical Services, said.
The Sora app was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions 2019 and is available for Humble ISD 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 entire Harris County community can access Harris County Public Library’s complete eBook and audiobook collection through the award-winning Libby app. Readers can use Libby on any major device or computer, including Apple (R), Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle(R) (US only).
Both reading apps are built by OverDrive and OverDrive Education. To learn more, visit https://meet.soraapp.com/ and https://meet.libbyapp.com/.