The Library District created the student portal to ensure students and their teachers could easily access library resources consistently and successfully, now even more important with the cancellation of in-person education and closure of libraries due to COVID-19. The portal contains links to librarian-curated databases and eResources that have been proven most beneficial to students in their academic pursuits, including the most relevant encyclopedias, primary resources, tutorial help, eBooks and digital eAudiobooks.

SCCLD started digital Student eAccount outreach in September 2017 in partnership with a local school district. By the end of 2019, we expanded the program to offer Student ID-based eAccounts for all 13 public-school districts within the Library District’s boundaries, covering over 70,000 students. Future expansion will include private schools. From this foundation, we built up and marketed the Portal to connect students and teachers with our resources. We regularly share tips and news with students through digital flyers.

We saw a big boost in student usage of our resources through the ePortal, with Pageviews increasing from 8,215 to 40,075 over the past 12 months. There has also been a four-fold increase in the use of eBooks and other materials from our Online Collection. We anticipate that greater use of our electronic portal will result in better learning outcomes for participating students and far less hassle for teachers. SCCLD staff is starting on Version 2.0 to make the interface more visually engaging and add functionality.