Thursday, May 9, 2013

Using OverDrive’s new school metadata

What is metadata?  I can't speak for librarians and other education professionals, but as a former elementary school teacher I had never heard of the term metadata before joining OverDrive. Metadata is simply data about other data. The term is commonly used within the information technology field to summarize basic information about the eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video that OverDrive offers for your library, including information such as title, author, publisher, and subjects.

 

As a company, we thrive on customer suggestions and feedback in an effort to create the most useful service possible.  We have heard the plea from both schools and libraries to provide reading level metadata for the titles we offer. We are happy to announce that Content Reserve's advanced search function now contains options to search by ATOS level, Lexile measure and student interest level.

 

ATOS level and Lexile measure are definitely buzz words flying through curriculum departments and classrooms these days. These scores help determine the readability level for any given title, which can help library staff determine which titles are suitable for different age groups or grade levels, and can assist educators in charting students' reading progress.

 

We hope that these new tools will assist you while you explore the Content Reserve Marketplace. If you have any questions about what the new reading level metadata means or how you can use it to help build your digital collection, please contact your Collection Development specialist.

 

Renee Lienhard is an Analyst on the Collection Development team.

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