As a way to reach out and serve area schools, many public libraries offer a service commonly termed Assignment Alert. The idea is to give teachers and school librarians an easy online way to get help from the public library in identifying resources such as booklists, Websites, movies and books to support curriculum. Usually, there is an extended borrowing period, allowing teachers to have materials for the length of a teaching unit or classroom project. It's clear that these libraries want to provide assistance – but how much are assignment alert services used? Gail Zachariah, head of youth and community services, reports that usage of Keene Public Library's (New Hamphire) Assignment Alert service is light, with "just a couple submissions a month." Keene relies mostly on word-of-mouth to let educators know about the service. In Pleasanton, California, Sandy Silva, administrative librarian, reports that Pleasanton Library's Assignment Alert is also underutilized. "If we could get to the teachers before school starts, I think we could boost usage," Silva states, "but we haven't been able to get a plan in place." Becky Shane, youth services coordinator at Fairfield Public Library, Ohio, reported more of the same – little use of their Assignment Alert service, even when mar keted directly to area educators. Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library, Zionsville, Indiana, has been offering Assignment Alert for several years, but Carrie Smith, children's services librarian reports "that it doesn't get used by teachers in the school system." In Youth Services, the reference staff continues to receive phone calls each fall from Kindergarten teachers who want them to collect materials for use in their classrooms, but Smith relates that "they have not been able to transition those teachers making phone requests into making their requests via the Web site." One experience Hussey-Mayfield has in common with many libraries across the country is that the first hint of a major assignment usually comes when staff realizes that four or five students in a row have asked for materials on the same topic. "If we're lucky, at this point we get a student to let us make a photo copy of his/her assignment sheet and we put that i n our Assignment Alert folder," reports Smith. Jackie Partch, school corps lead worker at Multnomah County Library, Oregon, has a different story to tell. Multnomah County Library's Assignment Alert service is used heavily by the local schools, and Partch credits "delivering something tangible" to its success. "Many area schools have not had funding for school library or classroom reading materials for several years, and have come to rely on us to fill the gaps," states Partch. Materials are delivered directly to the schools, and like other programs, these materials have an extended circulation period of six weeks. The school corps structure that Multnomah has in place is unique in its direct focus on outreach to educators. Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD), Colorado Springs, Colorado recently launched an Assignment Alert service. After doing research and looking at a lot of other libraries, they created their own form, with categories of users intended to serve all grade levels, and to be of use to the area's very active school librarians. Kristen Baldwin, PPLD teen services librarian and outreach, knew it would be important to include home schoolers. "We have a very large group of homeschool families in our area, and as the chair of our district's home school committee I am always looking for ways to serve them," states Baldwin. PPLD has even added lesson plans in the Homework Help section of its teen Website as an added resource for homeschool families. Currently, PPLD only offers the assignment alert service at its two main branches, and has staff at each location in children's and in teen services to pull the necessary resources. Teacher awareness is being built, and the library sees this as part of a bigger project that is in the works: an educators page on the library Web site. Teachers and homeschoolers will be able to easily find the information they are looking for, and a lesson plan database will be added. PPLD currently does booktalks in all the middle schools, and has just begun to go to the high schools. "We serve six school districts, so this is never a small task," Baldwin notes. "We also offer research and library skills classes, which can be taught at either at the library or at the schools, and there are research/library skills classes specifically for our homeschool families." The library district also offers tours, either on a one-on-one basis (homeschoolers) or in a group (homeschoolers or school groups.) Teachers and school librarians are invited to PPLD's teen center twice a year for an open house as a way for everyone to meet each other and see the resources the library has to offer. PPLD librarians also attend the different school districts' school librarian meetings to further promote services and foster. PPLD sees Assignment Alert is a natural extension of the work that it already does with schools and homeschoolers.