Where were you on New Years Eve?

And we're back! Where were you on New Years Eve? Here in Sydney some of the Tutoring Australasia staff enjoyed their rooftop views of the city fireworks, some of us took off around the country, and everyone spent time with friends and family.

Settling into our first week back, we know many librarians were at work over Christmas, during the busy school holidays - to keep the activities running, the resources sparkling, and achieve what so many try to - keep families entertained and drive learning.

We've been working to make the New Year as easy as possible for you, with new promotional material, merchandise, and hundreds of ideas for 2010.

It's also six months into the process of evaluating and judging the 2009-2010 National awards to recognise your hard work, and we have a strong list of contenders. Top achievers are announced from 1 July - and there's still time to nominate an individual, a library service, or a branch for commitment to online learning in the community. Winners last year received their award, a morning tea for staff, and many took advantage of the nomination to build huge amounts of media coverage for all their library services.

So why does your library deserve the award for 2009-2010? We've been keeping an eye out - but let us know if you think there's something we might have missed that would help your award chances! Email Alane or Peri with your comments or questions about the awards.

... and happy new year!

End of the year, and the start of much more

With the rest of the world, we were keeping an eye on the Global Financial Crisis in 2009, but yourtutor kept sailing. This is of course due to the libraries, councils, schools, universities, and the dedicated people in them, who worked to give Australian students and families an online tutoring support system.

And our success this year is no doubt due to the number of new libraries, schools, and universities that joined the network - it will be great to work with you again in 2010. With the new there are a lot of old faces - with the oldest yourtutor members still finding more and more families to help every year, so of course big congratulations go to Fairfield (since 2003), and Burwood, Hurstville, Parramatta (since 2004).

Thanks again for your hospitality while the Client Services team travelled around the country clocking up the km's. This includes our visits to Hong Kong and New Zealand - just since October, HK and Kiwi kids have blown even our high expectations away to round out an exciting year.

And it wouldn't be complete here at the Tutoring Australasia office without some fun. Alex Clatworthy, the yourtutor head Online Education and Statistical Analyst describes a company trip to put-put golf last Friday:

"Mini golf is a sport that serves only one key purpose - to give people like me who spent half a decade at university studying applied physics to look utterly awesome in a social setting.

It is not just in the lay of the green, but trick shots utilising unintended lumps on the ground, dents in the railing or small patches of water to twist and turn the ball into the hole with a complete disregard for intuition, tradition or even basic fairness.

It is worth noting however that everyone had some take on the basic ‘hit ball towards hole’ premise with varying degrees of success, and fun was had by all."

The team was also treated to dinner and magic, a great night, and now we're sure there will be some yourtutor magic next year as well.

Enjoy your holidays, and see you next year.

yourtutor gets a Kiwi welcome

The Tutoring Australasia team made good on our 'Australasia' name and jumped over the Tasman recently for the LIANZA 2009 conference in Christchurch.

With more than 600 attendees from around the world, it was easy to feel like a local having only come from Sydney and Melbourne.

And the reception from New Zealand librarians couldn't have been more welcoming!

What was an excursion to hear NZ librarians' thoughts on local kids and homework, turned into something much more. The yourtutor network is now looking to get a bit larger, with many NZ schools and libraries getting ready to offer their local families instant, online school tutoring. I know Jack and Bill are looking forward to returning in a few weeks to catch up with some of you.

Speaking of enthusiasm - I'd also like to congratulate Auckland City Libraries' Carol Augustine for winning the LIANZA yourtutor competition. Participants were required to explain why New Zealand kids love their libraries, and Carol went even further, turning the entry card into a work of art! Congratulations again, it was a pleasure reading everyone's entries, and we hope Auckland City Libraries enjoyed their prize hamper.

Interested in what went on at LIANZA? Take a browse through the conference blog.

In light of our winners from Auckland City Libraries, take a look at any of their five library blogs!

The sweetest winner

Congratulations to Logan City Council Libraries for their winning entries in the Queensland Sweet Librarians Competition.

We loved their suggestion that a library could host a community “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” with Councillors/Staff vs. school kids, or hold a public “Who wants to be a millionaire?” style game with yourtutor as a lifeline. We hope the Logan team enjoys their hamper!

Thanks to everyone who entered for their library – 50 creative entries are on their way to you. If you didn’t get around to entering, don't worry, here are a few of them to inspire some of your own promotions.

“Get a free television ad with Prime, NBN, or WIN, or with a local public service radio announcement.”

"Set up a stall at the local council street fair or regional festival and hand out yourtutor bookmarks."

"Give a 'yourtutor parent information booklet' to new families moving into town (the real estate agent could hand them out to families as a friendly welcome.)"

"Ask the local school if they would benefit from having a small advertisement in the school newsletter every week/month - with a sample question a student asked, or some 'homework' tips from the library."

Value in public libraries

The following post was written by Tutoring Australasia's Client Services Manager for Queensland and northern New South Wales, Peri Beecraft.

The word 'value' is (to borrow a term from my 7 year old nephew) "bendy." At any given time it can mean worth, significance, price, cost or assessment. Value moves; it’s fluid. You can even "value-add."

John Scott, Library Manager, Burdekin Shire Council, has started to get library members to think about the value of the library resources and services they access. And in this case, John means the actual cost of the library services and resources if the member were to take their credit card and "shop" elsewhere.

John has sourced a calculator from the Riverina Regional Library Service (via the USA) that calculates the approximate cost of a library visit.

For example, during my visit to my public library I borrow 3 books, 2 DVDs and spend an hour on the internet while my son spends 20 minutes harassing the reference librarian about an overdue school assignment and then sulks because he still has to write it, but then cheers himself up by browsing a few surfing magazines.

The calculator tells me I saved myself $104 by using my public library, instead of bending the plastic and "shopping" elsewhere.

John believes that library members should know the value of the public libraries' resources. Indeed, from the point of view of a library, showing what you are worth is priceless!

Check out John’s calculator online here. If you would like a copy of the calculator, feel free to contact John directly via mail john.scott@burdekin.qld.gov.au He won’t charge you, promise.