Her solution: turn on her computer to use the Pierce County Library System’s new online tutoring service.

After a half-hour virtual tutoring session, the student at Ballou Junior High School in Puyallup understood how to do the math problem.

It’s a route more Pierce County students are trying these days as word spreads about the library’s “Live Homework Help.”

The free service allows Pierce County Library cardholders to communicate with a live tutor, who could be anywhere in the United States or Canada, via instant messaging. The service is targeted at fourth- through 12th-graders who need help with math, science, English or social studies homework.

“I like it a lot. It helps and it’s one-on-one,” said Anastacia, 13. “It’s not like a teacher talking to the whole class. It’s just me and the computer.”

The library started offering the service in late August at a cost of $75,000 annually, paid for by a levy passed by voters in 2006. The library contracts for the service with Tutor.com, which screens and provides professionally trained tutors.

Library staff found that Tutor.com offered the most comprehensive services at the greatest value, said Judy Nelson, Pierce County Library’s youth services librarian.

“We’ve eliminated all the dollar barriers,” she said. “Obviously this won’t solve every student’s homework problems or concerns, but it gives many more people access to homework help.”

The Tacoma Public Library would like to offer Tutor.com, but can’t afford it, Tacoma library spokesman David Domkoski said. The $41,000 estimated cost for Tacoma would consume about a third of the $120,000 the library already spends on database subscriptions, he said. He noted that funding for the Tacoma library must compete with other needs in the City of Tacoma budget, while the Pierce County Library System is its own taxing district.

Meanwhile, Nelson is pleased so far with the early number of users and comments. Students using the Pierce library system had 1,055 sessions with the tutoring service in November. Under the service’s rating system, 96 percent of those responding were glad the library offered the service.

Anastacia’s sister, seventh-grader Mackenzie, uses the service twice a week for math. Last school year, she studied with a tutor once a week at $25 an hour. This year, the online service meets her needs better since it’s available at practically any time, said her mother, Angelina Goveia.

“I think it’s a great resource, especially for kids that don’t have someone they can just go to,” Goveia said.

Sumner High School junior Josh Davidson also has found the service helpful for his math homework.

“If I’m searching the Web I’m hoping there’s something that’ll be worded (to answer) what I’m looking for. Even then, it’s not like I can ask more questions,” he said. “With the online tutor thing I can do it.”

Asked if the service needed improvements, the 16-year-old couldn’t cite any, save for one.

“If I could be teleported to the person that would be a lot better,” he said. “But I don’t think they have the technology for that, and I don’t think the Pierce County Library could afford that.”

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694 What: Through the Pierce County Library System’s “Live Homework Help” students can get help on a homework question or a concept from a trained tutor communicating via instant messaging.

Provider: Tutor.com, a national company that provides the same service to more than 1,600 public libraries across the country. The company screens and hires teachers, college instructors and other trained professionals throughout North America to serve as tutors.

Safety measures: Students do not talk on the phone with tutors and cannot ask for a specific tutor. Tutors are not supposed to exchange personal information with students.

Subjects tutored: Fourth- through 12th-grade-level math, science, English and social studies.

Hours: 3 to 10 p.m. daily. Spanish-speaking tutors in math and science 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

To connect: Go to www.piercecountylibrary.org/ kids-teens.

Cost: Free to Pierce County Library cardholders. Also free to cardholders with the Puyallup Public Library and libraries in Thurston and Kitsap counties, which have reciprocal agreements with the Pierce County Library. The King County Library System also offers the service.

Residents elsewhere can get unlimited use of the online tutoring service by paying the $103 annual fee for a Pierce County Library card. Families also can sign up directly through www.tutor.com; pricing starts at $29.99 for 50 minutes.

Debby Abe, The News Tribune