Last month, we shared the news that the National Library Board of Singapore (NLB) has launched the first-ever Digital Business Library as a part of their OverDrive-powered website. NLB’s using this aspect of their collection to bring new users from their community to the library. This is an exciting direction to take our eReading Room capabilities, but it’s by no means the only example of libraries working with their Account Specialists to create segmented collections for their readers.

Several years ago, we launched eReading Rooms specifically for kids and teens to provide young readers and their parents a place to find digital content appropriate for their age and reading levels. We’ve since expanded on this idea, working with creative librarians to highlight collections that will cater to specific audiences. Below you’ll find examples of eReading Rooms currently live on OverDrive library websites across the globe.

Language Rooms

OverDrive has titles available in over 100 languages, and if you have a multilingual community, a perfect way to bring them to the library is by making content in their respective languages easy for them to find. Several libraries have created language-based eReading Rooms, including Los Angeles Public Library’s Spanish Room, Seattle Public Library’s Chinese Room and Auckland Libraries Community Languages Room in New Zealand.

Los Angeles Public Library

Seattle Public Library

Auckland Libraries

Genre specific

Curating lists in genres and subgenres is nothing new, but if your readers are heavily borrowing cozy mysteries or biographies, it might make sense to prominently feature those collections. San Jose Public Library created a romance eReading Room where they spotlight certain publishers, types of romance books and even levels of “heat” so readers know what they’re getting into. Toronto Public Library has a “Whodunnit?” eReading Room where they promote mystery collections including domestic thrillers and The Girl on the Train Read-alikes, classic mysteries, award winners and several other subcategories. Birmingham Libraries’ users are heavy nonfiction readers, so their eReading Room’s loaded with everything from self-improvement books to autobiographies and historical nonfiction.

San Jose Public Library

Toronto Public Library

Birmingham Libraries

Let your imagination run wild

You don’t have to limit yourself to a specific group or genre of titles. Sno-Isle Libraries frequently changes out the collections they featured on their homepage, and once they’re no longer there, they add them to their Recently Featured eReading Rooms. The Ohio Digital Library worked with their Collection Development Specialist to curate lists of 2016 and 2017 award-winning books and created an Award-Winning eReading Room. Maryland is seeing a big push to get students involved with S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), so Maryland’s Digital Library created a young adult-specific S.T.E.A.M. Room highlighting exactly those collections of titles.

Sno-Isle Libraries

The Ohio Digital Library

Maryland’s Digital Library

If you’re interested in creating something similar to any of the eReading Rooms above or have another idea entirely, contact your Collection Development Specialist for more information on getting started.