Project Expansion: Chicago Public Library To Provide Online Tutoring to Chicago Students

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

After following through on a promise to expand the popular “Teacher in the Library” program to all 80 public libraries, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday added online help to the mix.
Thanks to a $50,000 contract with Brainfuse, the Chicago Public Library system will provide online tutoring seven days a week from 2 to 11 p.m. in English or in Spanish. The service can be accessed — by first-graders all the way up to high school seniors — using a home or library computer by all students with a Chicago Public Library card.
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Teachers in the Library started in 2000 with a $60,000 contribution from the Chicago Public Library Foundation that was enough to pay for just six teachers.
It has now been expanded to all 80 public libraries, thanks to partnerships forged with teacher certification programs at local universities, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul, Loyola, Northwestern, Dominican, National Louis University, North Park and Columbia College.
During the 2012-13 school year, Teachers in the Library provided 62,402 homework help sessions.

In Other Chicago Library News…
“Mayor Rahm’s Grand Experiment: Libraries Without Librarians” (October 2, 2013)
Note to Mayor Emanuel:
While it’s good to see the “Teacher in the Library” program expand it DOES NOT mean the school libraries and school librarians are no longer needed. Students need and deserve both types of libraries and librarians.

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries