Learn how to bring more voices and expertise into Sora with shelf talkers.
Share staff recommendations,
favorite quotes,
book club picks,
or thoughts with your reading community.
This feature is available in OverDrive Marketplace to our school partners,
including those with Advantage accounts.
Shelf talkers can be created from the shop view
or the curate view
for titles that are currently in your digital collection.
Shelf talkers then display on a title's details page in Sora for your end users to see.
There are four different types of shelf talkers.
Recommendation shelf talkers
allow you to share educator or student recommendations.
Favorite quote shelf talkers allow sharing of specific quotes from a title.
Trivia shelf talkers
allow sharing of fun facts about titles,
authors, subjects, school community, and more.
Thought shelf talkers allow for sharing thoughts that don't fall into the other categories.
Consider promoting school events,
highlighting new or popular titles,
mentioning upcoming books in a series,
posing questions for your school community,
and more.
Let's learn how to create a shelf talker.
I'm using the shop view today
but
remember you can also use the curate view to create shelf talkers,
and the options are the same.
Let's create some shelf talkers for staff picks.
Search for a title you own
and select shelf talker
either on the search results
or the title's details page.
A model opens which guides you through the process.
Choose a type,
in this case,
recommendation.
Add a note.
Use clear, concise language
and at least 50
But no more than 300 characters.
We recommend you avid repeating information already found in the title's description.
Just like with curated lists,
you can add translations to your shelf talkers so they appear in Sora for students who've changed the app's language.
You can choose to schedule a shelf talker or
have it appear indefinitely.
Scheduling shelf talkers keeps them fresh and timely and is a great option for school breaks, monthly celebrations,
book clubs,
and other short term needs.
Attribute notes lets you showcase school staff and their personalities,
creating an even more engaging Sora collection.
Enter a name,
school or grade,
and headshot or image.
Don't be afraid to get creative!
Preview to make sure everything looks correct
and then select publish.
There is now an active indicator next to shelf talker.
The status will appear as active,
inactive,
no note,
or scheduled.
You can see all titles in your collection that currently have a shelf talker
by running an advanced search
and selecting a shelf talker status.
If the status is: Active.
Shelf talkers are live in Sora and end users can see it.
Inactive.
Shelf talkers that are past their end date.
They are still discoverable in case you'd like to access them in the future.
No note. Allows you to search for titles without shelf talkers.
Scheduled.
Shelf talkers with future start dates.
Select search.
You can then open,
review,
and edit the shelf talkers.
You can also filter search results to see titles with a shelf talker by selecting shelf talker status filter.
Now that we've seen how to create a shelf talker.
How do they look in Sora?
If there is a shelf talker for a title
it will appear here on the title's details page.
Placement may vary based on screen size.
Here are some best practices for creating shelf talkers:
Be sure to select the correct shelf talker type.
If you're noting that a title's author is visiting your library
put that under thought
not trivia.
Use clear, concise language.
Avid repeating information already found in the titles description.
Limit notes to one or two paragraphs.
Think about your intended audience.
There is a 300 character max.
Schedule to keep shelf talkers fresh and timely.
Attribute
with a name and picture to showcase staff's expertise and personalities.
Be selective.
The more shelf talkers you add
the less impactful or special they become.
Choose wisely between curation and shelf talkers.
If one phrase, quote, or description
applies to several titles,
curate them and add a description instead.
Shelf talkers are a great way to bring school community voices and faces into Sora.
If you have any questions,
please visit Marketplace Help
or reach out to your Overdrive Account Manager.
Have a great day!