February 8, 2007

I M M E D I A T E  R E L E A S E

Homework Help a Click Away for Students in Jefferson County - Student Ambassadors Promote New Services

(Jefferson County, Alabama)

Library Ambassadors Promote New Free Online Resources

The Jefferson County Board of Education and the Jefferson County Library Cooperative (JCLC) has implemented a Library Ambassador program to promote new services, as well as other services offered by local public libraries.

Last year 9 Jefferson County schools, with 21 ambassadors, implemented 53 programs and made 4,662 contacts in their communities. Ambassadors from area high schools are selected to promote the service throughout their school and community for community service hours. Ambassadors inform and explain to students and teachers in area schools how the programs work and the benefits of these new resources. They are encouraged to place posters and distribute flyers in strategic locations in the local schools and community, work with schools to place links to the public library website to encourage usage of all resources such as the Alabama Virtual Library. Ambassadors are encouraged to coordinate placement of news stories and/or ads in local school newspapers.

Homework Alabama

Alabama students in fourth grade through the first year of college are now able to connect to free online homework help. Students can get homework help from expert tutors Sunday – Thursday from 3 – 10:00 p.m. by going to the website of the 39 public libraries in Jefferson County http://www.jclc.org/ or by visiting http://0-www.tutor.com.vulcan.bham.lib.al.us/apls.

Live homework help is available five days a week from 3:00-10:00 p.m. in the subjects of math, science, social studies and English. Students can connect to a tutor through any computer with Internet access, including computers at their local public library or at school.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is an online language library that offers a powerful method for past and effective language learning online. This award-winning program uses recorded voices of native speakers and thousands of real life photographs to recreate the natural progress of language learning. It’s easy! Log onto the Jefferson County Library Cooperative website http://www.jclc.org/.  The benefits include:

Downloadable Audio Books

Download classic literature, fiction, mysteries, thrillers, romance and fantasy. What you want, when you want, where you want! Browse and search a collection of audio book titles and download them to your computer, then transfer to a portable device, or burn select titles onto a CD to enjoy wherever you are. There are no late fees and since the titles return automatically. Go to http://www.jclc.org/.

The Jefferson County Library Cooperative (JCLC) is a non-profit organization composed of the 40 public libraries throughout Jefferson County. These include the 18 municipal libraries, the 21 libraries in the Birmingham Public Library System, along with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Library. The mission behind the JCLC is to link together the member libraries to provide better, more efficient centralized services for all county residents. For more information about the JCLC, please visit www.jclc.org.