The Tutor.com Blog

Maker spaces are in. From libraries to 11 year-old web series stars, everyone is inviting everyone else to get in on this movement. Alternatively, as that new trend takes center stage we are seeing more articles about MOOC skeptics. Once the golden child of the higher education market, MOOCs are seeing resistance and some backlash from universities and their leaders. Check out our top reads on these hot topics below!

A Science Star Already, Tinkering With the Idea of Growing Up via The New York Times Sylvia Todd’s desk is not tidy. It’s cluttered with small robots, motors, wires, resistors, a soldering iron and an array of other gadgets and tools. A maker, tinkerer and online celebrity, Sylvia has attracted more than 1.5 million YouTube views of the show she produces and hosts, the Web-based “Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show.”

Meet Your Makers via Publishers Weekly ….in the past 18 months, a growing number of libraries have been taking a much more radical approach: creating “maker” spaces. Based on the idea that libraries are for creation, not just consumption, maker spaces don’t just upend the normal programming model—they have the potential to reinvent the public library.

Why Some College Are  Saying No to MOOC Deals, at Least for Now via The Chronicle of Higher Education Amherst College, known for its selectivity, is accustomed to sending rejection notices. But when the liberal-arts beacon this month turned down an invitation to join the exclusive partnership of colleges offering massive open online courses through edX, it nonetheless drew surprise from many corners of academe.

MOOC Skeptics at the Top via Inside Higher Ed It would be easy to think that the leaders of American higher education are all in when it comes to MOOCs. Dozens of colleges and universities — many of them among the elites — have rushed to offer massive open online courses. Top foundations back the effort. The American Council on Education has moved quickly to certify some of the courses as credit-worthy. Many other colleges are considering plans to award credit for MOOCs or to use them in instruction.

Miss a top read? Share yours with us in the comments section below!

We are excited to announce the launch of the Tutor.com Better Together Contest! Tutor.com has worked with libraries for more than ten years to create lifelong opportunities for patrons. During that time we’ve seen an increase in library innovation as they sought partnerships with schools, businesses, and local government agencies. We believe everyone benefits when these community partnerships are nurtured. That’s why we’ve created the Better Together Contest to recognize and reward your efforts.

The Tutor.com Better Together Contest is now accepting submissions from libraries to share their idea for a program that will help build a stronger community. The winning library will receive a prize of $1,000 to fund the submitted idea.  Just head to www.tutor.com/bettertogether for details and the entry form.

Like cookies and milk, Ron and Hermione, Holmes and Watson, some things are just better together. Share with us how your library can make your community a better place, today!

Libraries and their staff are on the move. We’ve written about the changing landscape of libraries across the country, and can’t stop reading articles about the digital direction the community centers are taking. So Library Journal’s 2013 Movers and Shakers Awards certainly caught our attention. The tech leaders and community builders that made the list aren’t just keeping up, they’re one step ahead.

Tutor.com is fortunate enough to work with a few of the names that made the list and know from experience the importance these libraries place on providing resources that better their communities. From computer labs to youth services, there are all kinds of ways to make changes that truly affect your patrons. . And these minds are figuring out the best directions to head.

Special Tutor.com shout-out to:

• Mikael Jacobsen at Skokie Public Library

“Mikael Jacobson does far more than help people make stuff at the Skokie Public Library’s Digital Media Lab (DML). According to nominator Toby Greenwalt, ‘Mick is working to show the library’s ability as the creative heart of the village.”

• Michelle Perera at Rancho Cucamonga Public Library

“One of the first things Michelle Perera did after she joined Rancho Cucamonga Library in late 2008 as assistant library director was to conduct a needs assessment for the children’s library. ‘I saw an overwhelming need and desire for interactive and experiential activites,’ she says.”

• Kirby McCurtis at Multnomah County Library

“’I became a librarian for the social justice aspect of the work,” says Kirby McCurtis, adding “I am pretty loud and energetic, and I think that people don’t expect that of a librarian.” McCurtis has channeled her energy into trailblazing outreach programs for teen mothers and African Americans…”

• Priya Rathnam at Schrewsbury Public Library

“Even after the Shrewsbury Public Library was forced in 2009 to cut her hours to part-time, Priya Rathnam put her community first. She created the English Conversation Circle to help immigrants learn English. She sought grants, sponsorships, and colunteers to expand the program. ‘I decided to turn adversity into opportunity,’ says Rathnam.”

• Alene Moroni at King County Library System

“When HarperCollins restricted the number of times a library could circulate a given ebook to 26 back in 2011, many outraged librarians called for boycotts. But as manager, selection and order, at King County Library System, Alene Moroni knew that cutting off that access wasn’t  possible, because so many of the library’s ebooks were from Harper Collins. While she, too, was troubled by the announcement, she concluded that, ‘26 is certainly better than nothing.’”

Congratulations to all those who made Library Journal’s 2013 list!

Tutor.com is pleased to welcome Katherine Vander Vennet to our library team! As our new Sales Director for Libraries, Katherine has been enjoying getting reacquainted with folks she knew at public libraries from the days when she worked at Information Access Company (now part of Gale and Cengage Learning). Katherine has a strong background in working with organizations to achieve their goals and is excited about getting back to libraries after working in the B2B world with Hoovers, Earthlink, and other technology companies.

Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts, Communication/Visual Art from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Arts, Visual Arts/Business Management from New York University.  While working in the technology sales world, she also consulted for corporate and private art collectors. When you meet her, be sure to ask more about her love of art and her experience in the visual world.

Katherine says she is energized by the opportunity to bring online on-demand tutoring to all students regardless of their ability to afford help outside the classroom. She sees Live Homework Help through libraries as the great equalizer in educational success and in helping to build stronger communities through a better educated population. On a personal note she says, “As a mom of two teenage boys whose homework is beginning to far surpass my personal knowledge, Tutor.com is an amazing tool I wish I had know about for years!”

We hope you’ll have a chance to meet Katherine soon. Look for her at the Tutor.com booth at ALA Annual in Chicago!

We have seen tons of articles lately on the changing resources, goals and even building blocks of America’s libraries. These exciting changes are redefining the definition of what a library is. From massive digital library projects to new benchmarks and goals for libraries to reach, it is an exciting time to be in the marketplace. Here are our top reads on modern libraries from the past few weeks.

With New Leader, Digital Public Library of America Prepares for Its Debut via Wired Campus The soon to be launched Digital Public Library of America is planning on bringing large-scale resources together to make cultural and scientific record available to all. And with the recent announcement of the organizations new executive director the upcoming debut is all the more exciting. How with the DPLA change libraries and access to information? We can’t wait to find out.

Public Libraries: A Lifeline to Technology Resources via District Dispatch  A recent American Library Association report details the U.S. Library engagement with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). “Millions of Americans have turned to us to gain new technology skills and access to specialized resources. BTOP has helped to enable expanded services and to develop the improved infrastructure to meet these community needs.”

Libraries on the Edge via blog.tutor.com We’ve all known for a long time that libraries are much more than shelves of books. More than 100 million Americans walk into a public library every year to use public access computers and the Internet for help with job search resources, health information, and more. The bottom line: access to technology through public libraries is incredibly important to American communities. This is where the Edge Initiative comes in.

Did we miss a hot library topic you have been following? Let us know in the comment section below!

We’ve known for a long time that libraries are much more than shelves of books. More than 100 million Americans walk into a public library every year to use public access computers and the Internet for help with job search resources, health information, government services and homework assistance.* New research from Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that people are also connecting to their library via mobile devices and home computers to check the online catalog, reserve or renew a book , look for an event and much more.

The bottom line: access to technology through public libraries is incredibly important to American communities.  This is where the Edge initiative comes in. Launched almost two years ago, the Edge initiative is an impressive coalition of libraries and government organizations working together to support improvement and investment in public technology. The organization recently launched the Edge benchmarks to help libraries evaluate their technology services for their communities.

Community, Engagement and Management

As an organization that has delivered k-college and career support to millions of library patrons, Tutor.com was pleased to see the focus on helping the community use technology to pursue educational and career opportunities. We have seen firsthand through our partnerships with hundreds of libraries the difference it makes to give patrons access to expert assistance online whether it’s an Algebra 1 tutor helping a student prepare for an important test or a career tutor helping revise a resume.

The sense of empowerment patrons have from these interactions is shown in this interview with Melissa S. who accessed math tutoring through Clinton Macomb Public Library in Michigan for almost seven years. Melissa failed a math course before she saw a flyer about free homework help at the library. She decided to give it a try and the next year she not only passed her math class, but had the highest grade.

Empowering communities by offering critical services and resources via technology will continue to improve with the dialogue and insights offered by the Edge initiative. We’re looking forward to following the organization’s progress.

Is your library planning on incorporating the Edge benchmarks into your planning cycle?  Share your thoughts below or on Facebook.

As soon as we hopped off the plane in Seattle, we were ready to start talking! Discussing market trends, brainstorming new solutions for clients’ challenges and showing off our new outreach materials dominated our time at the ALA Midwinter Meeting which featured the theme The Conversation Starts Here. This past weekend kick-started many conversations that will continue well through 2013. Check out our recap of the hot topics below!

Building Stronger Communities. The recently released Pew Internet and American Life Project report, Library Services in the Digital Age found 91% of Americans age 16+ say public libraries are important to their communities. And access to the Internet for research and school projects is a big reason 16+ year olds go to the library. Libraries play a pivotal role in providing lifelong educational resources across diverse populations. From online tutoring and free classes to maker-spaces that support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), libraries are being creative about supporting their communities. Tutor.com is finding more students continue to access live tutoring from their libraries too.  In 2012, our community of tutors completed close to a million sessions with students coming from their libraries’ websites using their computer, smartphone or tablet.

Get Back to Your Life. New for 2013, Tutor.com launched a series of fun, engaging outreach materials that encourage library patrons to get their homework/work done and then get back to their busy lives. Thanks to all the clients who gave us great feedback!  If you want to see some of our favorite outreach materials and programs check out the Tutor.com Connecting with the Community page on Pinterest.

Protecting the Freedom to Read. This year it was amazing to see so many librarians taking a stand together.  The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom declared Sunday, January 27^th, Sweater Vest Sunday at ALA Midwinter to defend the freedom to read. OIF encouraged everyone to don sweater vests for the day and discuss the importance of reporting challenges of library materials to ALA OIF. We dove right into this conversation by bringing along our very own sweater vests to wear at the Tutor.com booth and show our commitment to the freedom to read!

Now that we’re back in the office we are already thinking ahead to our next stop, ALA Annual in Chicago this June. We can’t wait to join that conversation, Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves!

Twenty seven of our library clients have been partners for ten years! To celebrate, we’re featuring their unique stories and how Tutor.com has impacted their diverse communities.  

Clinton-Macomb Public Library (CMPL) has a special connection to its Michigan community. Formed in 1992, the library was spear-headed by citizens who were deeply concerned about dwindling resources for children in the community when the county library decided to focus strictly on research. Little more than five years later a tax referendum for funding was passed and the library was able to officially open its doors. We caught up with CMPL to discuss their history and the success they’ve had with their community programs.

Clinton-Macomb Public Library had such an interesting start! Tell us a little more about that.

Our small but tenacious library built a solid base of support in the community after the initial action taken in 1992. The library board realized that the goal of creating a good first class library system for the citizens of Macomb and Clinton Townships could not be achieved without a strong base of sustained adequate financing.  A vigorous campaign for a one mill tax in perpetuity was mounted and with its passage, the “new” Clinton-Macomb Public Library began. A new hired staff managed the ambitious goal of opening three new library buildings. We like to say that the library board’s “promises made” were indeed “promises kept.” The new CMPL system of a Main Library, South Branch and North Branch was all completed in a remarkable five years.

Wow! We love that the community realized the importance of having resources for the children. How large is the community you serve?

CMPL directly serves residents of Macomb Township and most of Clinton Township. We have 86,000 resident library card-holders and serve an additional 30,000 card-holders through reciprocal borrowing agreements.

What is one of the most popular events the library has hosted?

We have been very committed to the idea of promoting reading over the summer months as a way to maintain skills gained during the school year. Back in June, we hosted our first ever Summer Reading Kick-off Carnival with much success. We had magicians, a bounce-house, face-painting, free ice-cream, balloon-animals, and a concert by a local band. It was very well attended and as a result it was a great opportunity for our staff to promote our summer reading initiatives.

We’re excited to be celebrating our 10 year partnership with CMPL this year! What tactics have you used over the years to make it such a successful program?

We do the traditional means of advertising the service through our quarterly newsletter and on our website. But one of the more effective things we have done is contact local schools, specifically the high schools, and asked them to put a link to the service on their website. When they did, usage increased. In fact, we first introduced Tutor.com in 2002 and usage has increased every year since then.

That is a great idea to encourage schools to help get the word out to students. What words of advice would you have for other libraries looking to bring in an online tutoring program?

Don’t be afraid of success – we marketed ourselves to schools and as a result our numbers increased!

Lastly, do you have any student comments that stand out about the Tutor.com service?

Some of our favorites include:

“I had a really great tutor! She helped me brainstorm ideas and I finally was able to start my essay!:)”

“Very clear and helped me out so now I know how to do it now. I have receive 100 on my test thanks fuys for making it possible”

“it’s great iv only use it for a couple of minutes and I’m already hooked ”

We’ll be featuring one of our ten-year library clients each month.  To learn more about our homework, career and reference support services for libraries go to www.tutor.com/libraries

Twenty seven of our library clients have been partners for ten years! To celebrate, we’re featuring their unique stories and how Tutor.com has impacted their diverse communities.  

Founded in 1903 as a Carnegie Library, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library opened with just 2,526 books. Today the library boasts a rich collection of 1.3 million books, digital resources, and much more for their community of 900,000 people. Tutor.com caught up with them to discuss the changes the library has experienced in the last 100 years as well as the last decade of offering online tutoring and career services.

Tutor.com: Being over a century old, we’re sure the library has seen plenty of changes! Have there been a lot of adjustments just within the last 10 years?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library: In our newest buildings we‘ve sacrificed book shelves for more room for meeting spaces and technology, especially PC’s. This is our future, as it is for most libraries, as we go deeper into digital materials and see more need from the community for technology.

Tutor.com: What are some of the favorite programs or events the library has hosted?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library: We offer so many programs! One of our favorite events is “Study Zone Sunday” where students can drop by any Sunday during the school year for the event. The goal is to provide teens with a place to spread out and get some school work done, study for tests, work on group projects, etc.

We’ve also worked with  outside organizations. We teamed up with Queens College to create digital literacy programs that taught seniors anything they needed help with, from email to digital pictures. Charlotte Parent Magazine also partnered with us for a Young Author Contest that we judged and orchestrated. Another favorite was when our professional Basketball team collected donations for the library throughout their season with a “Block for Books” campaign.

Tutor.com: Those all sound exciting. Your Library has provided Tutor.com for 10 years now, what is some advice you have for other libraries that might be looking to kick off a homework help program?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library: Promote often. If folks don’t need to use the service right away, they can often forget it is available through the libraries. It is also helpful to work with sponsors who can help promote and fund the program. They like the idea of getting involved in helping the community’s students.

Tutor.com: What are some of the tactics your library uses to promote often?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library: Many times we will use some of the student comments in our promotions and advertising. At the beginning of the school year we also give the schools a list of our services, including Tutor.com.

Tutor.com: Great idea! Do any of those comments stand out as a favorite?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library : “I LOVE LOVE LOVE it more than chocolate”

We’ll be featuring one of our ten-year library clients each month.  To learn more about our homework, career and reference support services for libraries go to www.tutor.com/libraries

What if, suddenly, millions of people disappeared from the world? They didn’t die, they were just gone. How would you cope? How would society cope? That is the premise of our latest book club pick.

The Leftovers, written by Tom Perrotta, takes a look at how ordinary people react to extraordinary events. While “the Departure” sets the book in motion, the story is really about how people deal with unexplainable events. Should you try to chase down answers and obsess over what you might never know? Or should you try to return to normal, acknowledge something happened, but move on?

The book follows a cast of characters all from the small suburban town, Mapleton, and how each one reacts to an unprecedented tragedy. The main focus is on the Garvey family, made up of the parents Kevin and Laurie along with their daughter in high school, Jill, and college aged son, Tom, all of whom survived the Departure. A completely different perspective is added to the mix with Nora, also a Mapleton native, whose entire family (her husband, daughter, and son) disappeared. Between these five characters there were the extreme reactions: devoting your life to a cult that claims to have the answers. And the less extreme reactions: becoming friends with the wrong crowd or obsessing over SpongeBob Squarepants.

We dove right into the big question:  who was disappointed that we never found out what caused the departure?  Was it aliens, religion, science?!  Our conclusion was that not knowing was integral to the storyline and how we related to the characters and how they managed to live after an extraordinary event. Many of us found hidden meanings within the book. Perhaps the Departure was symbolic of death, and the book was focusing on how we deal with being the ones left behind after our loved ones depart. Or perhaps it is discussing the boredom of the middle class and the need to liven up your too perfect world.

In the end, we agreed that The Leftovers is a great read, but the ending left a little to be desired. With so many emotions running wild, and so many different personalities at play, the book concluded with a surprisingly pleasant ending for most of the characters. It all felt just a little too easy. Plus, it could have used some more sci-fi elements, because really, what book can’t use more sci-fi.

Join us as we read our next book club pick the fantasy novel, The Folk of the Air, by Peter S. Beagle, the author of The Last Unicorn!

Twenty seven of our library clients have been partners for ten years! To celebrate, we’re featuring their unique stories and how Tutor.com has impacted their diverse communities.  

In 2008 Skokie Public Library was awarded a National Medal by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in recognition of their exceptional programs and multicultural services. This included their annual Skokie Festival of Cultures, their Young Steinway Concert Series, and their multitude of multilingual resources. The best libraries are often reflections of their communities needs. And the library is doing just that as 43% of the population in Skokie is foreign born and over 70 different languages are spoken in homes across town. We checked in with Skokie Public Library to see what they were up to now and why Tutor.com has been a successful program for their community.

Tutor.com: Tell us a little bit about your library.

Skokie Public Library: Our library serves our community of 64,784 through a single building and a Bookmobile. Last year there were over 848,000 visits to the library and an annual circulation of 2.1 million. Programming is also very important as in our FY 2012 we had over 54,000 attendees.

Tutor.com: Wow! That is a lot of visits. Which department runs your Tutor.com program?

Skokie Public Library: That would be the Youth Services Department. They offer programs, services, and a vast collection of print and digital materials for children from infancy through eighth grade. Some of those library features include our Computer Lab and Youth Media Center, our Parent-Teacher collection of books and journals which address childhood development and learning, and the library’s ‘Come On In!’ program for children with disabilities.

Tutor.com: Those all sound like great resources for your community’s students. What are some of your favorite programs or events that you’ve hosted?

Skokie Public Library: Some popular and successful programs include, ‘Coming Together in Skokie’, a reading-based program with a six week focus on one of the local cultures. Another is the ‘Young Steinway Concert Series’ for outstanding pre-professional young musicians. This summer we also hosted another year of ‘Booking with a Buddy’, a summer program which matches volunteers with students who have completed kindergarten or first grade and want to keep up their new reading skills over the summer.

Tutor.com: Awesome! With so many different offerings and programs, how do you also fit in promoting your Tutor.com service?

Skokie Public Library: The Live Homework Help graphic and hyperlinks appear prominently on every Youth and Teen Web page and elsewhere throughout our website. We also feature a linked graphic on our opening web page for several weeks during the back-to-school and testing seasons. Youth Services staff members visit schools, classrooms, and faculty meetings to talk about and demonstrate Live Homework Help for students, teachers, and parents. We have arranged real-time tutoring demonstrations with remote assistance from Tutor.com staff and local assistance from student users.

Tutor.com: Thanks for those great ideas. Do you have any quotes from students who have used the Tutor.com service through your library that you would like to share?

Skokie Public Library:

“they should never stop this program ))”

“Great service! I love to use this because it’s hard to work some of my homework problems, but knowing this is here and that it can help me, I feel much more confident in my studies.”

“This place, 100%, gets my answers answered, but also explains how to derive them. Thanks Online Homework help. ”

We’ll be featuring one of our ten-year library clients each month.  To learn more about our homework, career and reference support services for libraries go to www.tutor.com/libraries

Tutor.com Sales Director, Tom Squillace, works remotely at his home office in Michigan. While he isn’t able to participate in the Tutor.com Reads Book Club, he did have his own summer book club meeting with his two daughters after surprisingly enjoying an unexpected book. Find out more below!

It isn’t every day that my job at Tutor.com gets to impress my two girls, but at ALA’s Annual Conference this past June I was able to do just that. In between catching up with old friends and meeting new faces, I made my way to a few of the events that ALA hosts during the conference. After pleasing the intellectual side of my brain at the John Irving presentation, I moved onto something a bit lighter and something my two daughters, Jacqueline, 11, and Colleen, 14, would totally “gleek” out over.

Chris Colfer, the Golden Globe winning actor who plays Kurt on the television show Glee, was at ALA 2012 to discuss his own book, The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell. The book itself was basically an afterthought to my decision to attend. Since my two daughters are huge Glee fans, I figured that I could use my video phone to connect with them back in Michigan so they could watch a portion of the event.

As I was sitting there, feeling a bit sheepish, holding up my phone so my girls could get a virtual glimpse of an actual TV star, I looked at a copy of the book in question and was a bit skeptical. It didn’t look like the type of book that my girls would like, but I brought a couple of copies home with me anyway, hoping that at least it would keep their noses away from their electronic devices for a few minutes. When I got home, what ensued was an affirmation of the power of the written word, as well as a realization that perhaps I underestimated my girls just a bit.  The book turned out to be an absolute hit, especially with Jacqueline, who has read and reread the book a few times.

A few weeks later, as I was selecting some reading material for our family vacation, I came upon The Land of Stories and decided that I would bring it along as a 4th string substitute. As it happened, our trip had a bit more rain than usual, and one rainy morning I picked up Mr. Colfer’s book. I was sure that I would get through a few pages, become bored, and go in search of a more substantial piece of writing. But the strangest thing happened. The book actually turned out to be a pretty ripping sort of yarn – a kind of reinvented fairy tale, with some pretty solid characterization (Goldilocks as a wanted fugitive!), a plot that hummed along at a favorable pace, and some surprises thrown in at the end.

While my enjoyment of the book was a surprise, the best part of it all was that I got to share my reactions with both of my girls. We kind of had our own little book club meeting while waiting for the sun to come out. It was a great part of our vacation, but now that I think about it, does this mean I have to start watching Glee?