Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is TeachingBooks.net?
2. How do I sign in to TeachingBooks.net?
3. Who is TeachingBooks.net for?
4. How much does a license to TeachingBooks.net cost?
5. How do I place an order for TeachingBooks.net?
6. How does access to TeachingBooks.net work?
7. What is the Educator Area?
8. How do I create a profile for the Educator Area?
9. How do I schedule a live webinar training for my staff?
10. What's new on TeachingBooks.net?

What is TeachingBooks.net?

TeachingBooks.net is an online database of thousands of multimedia resources you can use to explore children's and young adult books and their authors.

We provide immediate access to useful materials and exciting programs (short movies, audio book readings, book discussion guides, and more) that add a multimedia dimension to reading in the classroom, library, and home.

Use TeachingBooks.net to look up any favorite author—from David Macaulay to J.K. Rowling, from Dr. Seuss to Shakespeare—or any title (fiction or nonfiction). You instantly get search results filled with online teaching / learning resources about that author or specific book.

These resources are also perfect for lesson planning, author studies, and Professional Development to support the many ways books can be integrated into all subject areas in the K–12 curriculum.

TeachingBooks.net is now in more than 23,000 schools coast-to-coast, helping to nurture a love of reading and books.

• More about TeachingBooks.net
• TeachingBooks.net Original Content
• History & Vision
• New Enhancements & Coming Soon

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How do I sign in to TeachingBooks.net?

To sign in to TeachingBooks.net, you can visit: http://TeachingBooks.net/home

On the right side of your screen, you will notice a Sign In box. (If you do not see this Sign In box, then you are probably already signed in.)

You can access your TeachingBooks.net license by entering your email address or by entering a username/password. If you've signed in to TeachingBooks.net using a particular email address in the past, you can simply enter your email address and click submit.

You'll know you're signed in when it reads "Sign Out" in the upper right corner of any screen on TeachingBooks.net.

If you encounter any difficulties signing in, please call our staff at (800) 596-0710. Or, email us, and we'll do our best to help you get signed in within minutes.

If you do not already have a TeachingBooks.net license, start a free trial.

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Who is TeachingBooks.net for?

A license gives unlimited campus and remote access to everyone in your school, library, or educational district—every teacher, librarian, staff member, curriculum specialist, family, and student. We want all boundaries of access broken down to equalize the opportunity for everyone to experience these multimedia author and book connections.

Home access, by the way, makes TeachingBooks.net ideal for at-home study projects and school/home community-building efforts. Flyers and bookmarks with access passwords, already translated into numerous languages, help non-English speaking families know about this reading resource available to their children.

Share & Promote your TeachingBooks.net access.

Pricing for:

• PreK–12 Schools & Districts
• Universities
• Public Libraries
• Cooperative Purchasing & States
• Homeschool Communities

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How much does a license to TeachingBooks.net cost?

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How do I place an order for TeachingBooks.net?

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How does access to TeachingBooks.net work?

Access works in several ways for TeachingBooks.net paid licenses.

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What is the Educator Area?

Create an Educator Area profile to get more out of your TeachingBooks.net experience, including:

• Newsletter Subscriptions
• Curriculum Connections
• In partnership with School Library Journal
• Eye-on-the-Web updates
• Personalized reports with new TeachingBooks.net resources just for you
• The Conduit
• The inside scoop on what's new at TeachingBooks.net and how to maximize your license


• Additional Resource Types
• Thematic Booklists
• Book Awards
• Valuable Links

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How do I create a profile for Educator Area?

Create an Educator Area profile.

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How do I schedule a live webinar training for my staff?

You can schedule a live webinar training online here, or by faxing in this Webinar Scheduling Form.

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What's new on TeachingBooks.net?

• See what's been added to the TeachingBooks.net resource collection in the last 30 days.
• New Enhancements & Coming Soon to the TeachingBooks.net website

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• Does TeachingBooks.net have full-length book readings?
• Does TeachingBooks.net have resources for a specific age group?
• Does TeachingBooks.net have resources for a specific curricular area?
• Does TeachingBooks.net have resources in languages other than English?
• Does TeachingBooks.net have a blog?
• Does TeachingBooks.net have resources about illustrators?
• What is an Author Program?
• What is a Book Guide?
• What is a Book Reading?
• What is a Thematic Booklist?
• What are Reading List Resources?
• How are featured authors/resources selected?
• How can I cite TeachingBooks.net Original Author Programs?

Does TeachingBooks.net have full-length book readings?

While most of the book readings on TeachingBooks.net are audio excerpts of a book, we do have many books being read in their entirety.

To access the full-length book readings on TeachingBooks.net,

1. Visit the main Book Readings tab in the upper navigation bar of any page on TeachingBooks.net.
2. In the orange browse bar at the bottom of the main Book Readings page, select "Full-length" in the leftmost drop-down menu.
3. Click "Go" to explore all full-length Book Readings.

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Does TeachingBooks.net have resources for a specific age group?

TeachingBooks.net has resources on books and authors relevant for all ages, grades PreK to 12. The resources are grouped into four overlapping age ranges:

• PreKindergarten to grade 2
• Grades 1-5
• Grades 4-8
• Grades 7-12

To identify the resources that match your specific grade level interest, conduct a search from the Guided / Advanced Search page.

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Does TeachingBooks.net have resources for a specific curricular area?

TeachingBooks.net has resources on books and authors relevant for all curricular areas. Some classrooms that may not traditionally use trade books (like physical education, math, science, health, art, and music) can find relevant resources on TeachingBooks.net. To identify the resources that match your specific curricular areas of interest, conduct a search from the Guided / Advanced Search page.

Note: TeachingBooks.net is designed to help you find resources about specific titles, authors, and illustrators. Thus, the curricular areas are general.

To help you find resources about specific subject areas of study, we've integrated Library of Congress headers and BISAC area subject codes into the TeachingBooks.net database. Use the "Subject" radio button on the Guided / Advanced Search page to find materials for a specific subject (e.g. weather, baseball, or adoption).

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Does TeachingBooks.net have resources in languages other than English?

Yes. Most notable are the Spanish-language resources. Find Spanish or bilingual resources (and English resources about bilingual books/authors) by using the QuickSearch pull-down menu found in the purple search box. Besides English and Spanish, there are also a handful of resources in (or about books written in) Chinese, French, Hmong, Ojibwe, Passamaquoddy, and Russian.

Note: TeachingBooks.net strives to include resources in non-English languages, but is dependent on the availability of these resources on the World Wide Web. If you know of any quality online resources we should include, please contact us.

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Does TeachingBooks.net have a blog?

Yes. The TeachingBooks.net Blog offers strategies for using featured resources, insights from the authors we talk to, and helpful hints from the staff at TeachingBooks.net.

Read the blog.

Subscribe by RSS to receive all posts.

Subscribe by email to only receive articles that match your specific grade levels and curricular areas of interest (part of our Eye-on-the-Web service).

The TeachingBooks.net Blog is one of several Web 2.0 tools on TeachingBooks.net.

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Does TeachingBooks.net have resources about illustrators?

Yes. TeachingBooks.net uses the term "author" to signify author or illustrator.

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What is an Author Program?

TeachingBooks.net provides access to children's book creators so that anytime, anywhere, you can experience personalized glimpses into their lives and work through video, audio, and text resources.

Types of Author Programs Available from TeachingBooks.net:

1. TeachingBooks.net Original Author Programs

   TeachingBooks.net produces one-of-a-kind, virtual author programs. Our movies, filmed in the homes and studios of nationally renowned children's book creators, feature interviews, illustrator demonstrations, book readings, and much more.

   With a click of the mouse, you can access:

   • Original, in-studio, 5-minute movies
   • Reproducible movie transcripts
   • In-depth written interviews
   • Creative discussion and book guides
   • Comprehensive bibliographies
   • Pertinent, reliable links

2. Other Insightful Author Interviews

   TeachingBooks.net continually identifies, catalogs, and maintains reliable links to multimedia interviews with children's book creators. [The sites linked to may have their own software requirements. For example, some of these interviews require Real Media Player. You should be able to find links to download this necessary software on their host sites.]

Browse Author Programs now.

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What is a Book Guide?

There are thousands of free, professionally written and well-researched teaching guides available on the Internet. TeachingBooks.net continually identifies, catalogs, and maintains reliable links to these guides, making it easy for you to identify and access them.

Each guide, written by either teachers or educational consultants, gives you an excellent starting point for sharing books with children and young adults.

Browse Book Guides now.

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What is a Book Reading?

Everyone loves to hear favorite books read aloud. Young children and teens alike gain a better understanding of the book and can experience it in a different way when they hear it read to them. TeachingBooks.net has compiled hundreds of audio excerpts of books being read by their authors, professional actors, and others for the enjoyment of readers of all ages.

Browse Book Readings now.

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What is a Thematic Booklist?

Educators create fabulous booklists on hundreds of themes, and TeachingBooks.net is proud to host, catalog, and make them available to you. For example, find lists of books on:

• Deaf Characters
• Plants
• Young Inventors and Detectives

Browse Thematic Booklists now.

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What are Reading List Resources?

TeachingBooks.net offers single-click access for everyone in your school or district to instantly have all the online multimedia resources that support any of the reading lists that your institution uses. (This includes all library, summer reading, ELA, etc. lists—whatever reading lists your institution uses.)

See our Sample District Reading List results for an example of how we can provide, in one click, all of the online author interview movies, audio excerpts of books being read, book guides, author websites, author name pronunciations, and more that support the reading lists you use.

Get resources tied to your reading lists.

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How are featured authors/resources selected?

The authors and illustrators that TeachingBooks.net chooses to interview for our Original Author Programs are carefully selected so that our site offers a variety of book creators to "meet." The criteria include:

• grade level appropriateness
• potential or actual use of author's books in classrooms
• demographic diversity
• subject area expertise

As a small business based in Madison, Wisconsin, our resources of time and money are limited, so we plan the few original productions we make each year with much thought.

At the same time, we continuously direct teachers to useful resources that already exist on the Internet. All of the resources to which TeachingBooks.net links are vetted first to ensure that they help educators and students think about books and book creators in new ways.

TeachingBooks.net's Collection Development Policy exists to ensure consistency and professionalism in our online collection of resources.

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How can I cite TeachingBooks.net Original Author Programs?

Citation rules vary, particularly for electronic source materials. Here are two examples for citing a TeachingBooks.net Original Author Program.

MLA Citation:

APA Citation:

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What are the technical requirements of TeachingBooks.net?

TeachingBooks.net is designed and tested to function properly with the following software. Supported versions of each product are available for free from our Test Your Computer page.

TeachingBooks.net supports each of the following:

Operating Systems:

• Mac OS 9.1 and higher
• Windows 98 and higher

Internet Browsers for the Mac:

• Safari 1.0 and higher
• Firefox 1.0 and higher
• Google Chrome 1.0

Internet Browsers for the PC:

• Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher
• Firefox 1.0 and higher
• Google Chrome 1.0

Multimedia Software:

• Flash 7.0 and higher to watch the TeachingBooks.net Original Author Program movies and slideshows
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 and higher to view any PDF documents

Additional Software:

TeachingBooks.net contains links to thousands of relevant websites and resources, each of which control their own software requirements. For example, some external links within Author Programs require Windows Media Player, while others require QuickTime. You should be able to find links to download such additional software on these sites. As a reminder about TeachingBooks.net Linking Policy, such sites are not under the control of TeachingBooks.net and TeachingBooks.net is not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or any information, content, products or services accessible from such sites.

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How do I best set up my license to TeachingBooks.net?

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What if I forgot the email address I use to sign in to TeachingBooks.net?

If you forget the email address you used when signing in, you can send a note to accounts@teachingbooks.net. Include all the information you can about the account, including any parts of the email address that you recall, and we will try to help. You also received this information in your "Welcome to TeachingBooks.net" email that was sent to you upon subscribing. Also, you can call the TeachingBooks.net office: (800) 596-0710.

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How do I change my email newsletter subscriptions?

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