Financing College

Many students in their last semester of high school have the same question, “Where do you want to go to college?” Parents are usually asking, "How are we going to pay for this?"

In the last ten years the average cost of tuition and fees has risen by 57% at private four-year colleges and 69% at four-year public colleges These figures from the College Board may have you feeling a little light-headed, but the costs can be managed thanks to the power of compounding interest.

Since every family’s situation is different, you’ll need to find a savings method that works for you. In doing so, you’ll want to consider factors like your tax bracket, child’s age, how much financial aid you expect to receive, etc. Then, you can use these helpful college financing calculators to figure out how much you’ll need to save.

Once you’ve determined this figure, you need to decide on a savings vehicle. In addition to mutual funds, brokerage accounts, and bank savings accounts, there are also some tax-advantaged alternatives available to help.

Here are some options:
-529 Plans
-Prepaid Tuition Plans
-College Savings Plans
-Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
-Custodial Accounts
-Savings Bonds

And remember you don’t necessarily have to save for the entire four years. Grants, loans, and scholarships can help make affording college a little easier.

Here are some resources to get you started:

For Students
-Studentaid.ed.gov
-Students.gov
-Student Educational Resources from USA.gov
-FastWeb.com

For Parents
-Parents’ Educational Resources from USA.gov
-Fact Sheet: College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007

Don't forget to check out the Education subject guide on the Databases & Websites section of the Library's Web page - hcplc.org. Also, check out some of these books at your local library on financing college and scholarships.

This information was reposted from Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog.

Ask A Librarian Goes Mobile!

You don't just need a librarian when they're sitting in front of your computer. You need us when you're driving across the state, or ordering dinner in a restaurant, or playing Trivial Pursuit with friends.

We proudly introduce Ask a Librarian Mobile, which allows you to access Ask a Librarian from your cell phone, PDA or any other Web-enabled handheld device.

We’ve been working hard to take our service to the next level, and we're excited to offer just one more way for you to take advantage of our valuable service right when you need us. Currently, only our email service is available through Ask A Librarian Mobile.

The URL for the mobile interface is http://www.askalibrarian.org/mobile/ or http://www.askalibrarian.org/m.

Our next step is to implement the live chat service. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Here's some Ask A Librarian Mobile FAQs.

NewsBank Enhancements

There have been a few design enhancements to the Newsbank family of databases: America's Newspapers, Access World News and America's Genealogy Bank.

Through a streamlined design and robust new search capabilities, users can easily:
• compare and contrast different perspectives by state, region, country or continent
• refine searches for more relevant returns
• sort by name, date range, location and source type
• limit searches by article word count to filter out news briefs and minor articles

Users receive finely targeted results through unique search navigators that:
• refine results and pinpoint articles by title, date, source type and geographic location
• display topic and events results over time
• uncover differing viewpoints and differences in the way news is presented
• show search terms in context to help users identify the most relevant articles

Other enhancements include:
• an intuitive map that helps users pinpoint searches by location
• an improved toolbox that makes it easy to print, email or cite articles
• context-sensitive help throughout
• flexible tools for exporting citations to programs such as RefWorks, EndNote and ProCite

View a brief online demo of the changes.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone Ltd. recently introduced Rosetta Stone Version3, which will replace the Rosetta Stone Version 2 that we are currently using for online access. After careful analysis, the company has decided to discontinue access online for public libraries. As a result, our online access will no longer be available after December 31, 2007, which is when our subscritption ends. We will be investigating other online language products for use in the future. In the interim don't forget about the Pimsleur Language Studies Audiobooks offered by NetLibrary.