At this very moment, someone in a remote settlement at the Arctic Pole, a lavish hotel in Montreal or a small library in rural America, could be using an electronic device to access a textbook, a romance novel or instructions on how to fix a spacecraft.
They have OverDrive to thank. Headquartered in Cleveland and incorporated in 1986, OverDrive is the world’s leading digital reading platform for
ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, films and other digital media for libraries, schools, institutions of higher learning, government agencies and corporations.
The numbers are astonishing. OverDrive serves 115 countries. School and library checkouts in 2022 totaled 555 million, up 10% from 2021. More than 92,000 member institutions, schools and libraries rely on OverDrive.
In the center of this gargantuan network is OverDrive’s founder and CEO, Steve Potash, a graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, The Ohio State University and Cleveland State University’s College of Law. Potash loves Cleveland, his family and playing the accordion. He didn’t start out to be a crusader for literacy and a global information supplier. He’s been a self-proclaimed entrepreneur all his life. Potash had his hand in several enterprises before his ever-active brain focused on the then-fledgling software industry decades ago. (Remember floppy diskettes? Potash provided those, too.)
“We were fortunate enough to survive the early days as a software startup in the ’80s in Cleveland and not having sources of capital. There weren’t a lot of examples of software businesses here that were successful or that looked like good investments,” says Potash, who credits his wife, Loree, as a vital partner in founding the company. “I used to say if I was raising money to set up a strip mall in those days that Cleveland would have been a great town for it. But it was a challenge to start a digital media company that would be taken seriously globally. Everyone thought you had to be in Seattle or Silicon Valley.”
But Potash understood the amazing reach of digital no matter where you are located. And besides, he has deep roots in Cleveland. Potash wasn’t leaving and hasn’t left yet. His mother came to the city as a Holocaust survivor and orphan from Poland. She met Potash’s father here and raised a family. Cleveland, Potash says, gave him and his siblings amazing opportunities and allowed “a young immigrant family to realize the American dream.”
No doubt his family, education and life experiences helped shape Potash’s desire to end illiteracy worldwide. OverDrive fits his mission perfectly.
“What Steve has done is made it easy for libraries to help people everywhere access the books and information they want to read online,” says Felton Thomas Jr., executive director and CEO, Cleveland Public Library. “He has created a giant library of materials. If you take in all the titles, it’s probably the largest library in the world, except for the Library of Congress.”
Thomas notes OverDrive really is everywhere. Recently he was visiting Tel Aviv and “walking along a strip of beach,” when an OverDrive company vehicle passed by, a sight he could hardly believe.
“Steve is the person who doesn’t drink one cup of coffee in the morning, but the whole pot. You can’t believe his energy level,” says Thomas, who has known Potash for about 15 years. “It’s his vision, persistence and perseverance that allows him to get things done. He doesn’t give up. And he’s always learning things.”
That includes the accordion lessons that Potash began about four years ago and which recently got him invited to play the instrument at a friend’s wedding in Paris.
“It’s not like he has nothing to do. But Steve, even at an older age, likes to challenge himself in different ways. So, it was the accordion,” says Thomas.
But one challenge Potash would like to see eliminated is the devastating effect of illiteracy in both children and adults. (50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level.) Another is the attack on Americans’ right to read.
“Who would have thought we would be spending countless hours and mindshare trying to preserve the freedom to read? Or the right of all readers to go to a library or school and self-select a book? Or learn about things that interest them?” asks Potash. “I get angry. We have to step up and come to the aid of our educators and librarians who have been under attack.”
But Potash believes there is also a “positive flipside” to this concern. Being in the current digital world allows greater access to materials than ever before, he says. Book banning and other restraints are no match for access tools that continue to break down those barriers. Potash also points to several of OverDrive’s lifelong learner apps, including Libby, Sora, Kanopy and TeachingBooks, as tools that help push back against illiteracy and censorship.
“We have to roll up our sleeves and help enlighten some others about what really helps students, in particular, succeed. That’s access to reading. And that’s possible because of our partnerships with schools and community partners,” says Potash.
His passion also spills over to charities and nonprofits. A gift of $7.5 million supports the Steve and Loree Potash Women and Newborn Center at University Hospitals (UH) Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood. He is also an active UH board member, a role of which he is very proud. In addition, Believe in Reading, supported by the Steve and Loree Potash Family Foundation, funds the teaching and encouragement of reading all around the world.
Potash admits that his insatiable curiosity about everything in the world can be both a blessing and a curse. He wants to try everything and anything. But he also has come to recognize the rolling-eyes look his executive board sometime gives him if one of his ideas is a bit too much.
“I had to sign a pledge,” confesses Potash. “They can ask me if I think that what I am suggesting can become the best of its kind in the world. If I honestly can’t say yes, then I have to usually let go. I mean, if you can’t be the best, why bother?"
