The Digital Betsy-Tacy Project is an initiative born at Rutgers University in 2025. In it, we explore the experience of revisiting literature and media from one’s childhood as we take a journey through the Betsy-Tacy books, Maud Hart Lovelace’s classic, much-loved series of children’s/young adult historical fiction.

In the first phase of the project, depicted on this website, we gather, curate, research, and analyze some of the most important moments and themes in the books. We also consider how they may relate to, and even help us understand, life in a modern, digital society. Subsequent phases of the project will explore in greater depth themes and insights that are surfaced here and may extend the study to other classic children’s books and media.

The Digital Betsy-Tacy Project was publicly launched at the Betsy-Tacy Convention in Mankato, MN in October 2025. Posts continue to be added afterward, here on this site and in the Project’s LinkedIn Group, The Digital Betsy-Tacy Project. Just click on the book titles in the navigation menu to view the posts associated with each one, and feel free to join the LinkedIn group.

Wit, wisdom, insights, and lessons of all kinds abound in these “tomes,” as they are affectionately referred to by Lovelace’s legion of admirers. This project is not meant to be an exhaustive collection of these, but a repository upon which others may build. Ideally, the relevance and the significance of the Betsy-Tacy series to generations of readers of all ages (including my Rutgers students!) will be enhanced and preserved, and many more reimaginations will follow.

Content on the Digital Betsy-Tacy Project website may be accessed free of charge and freely shared for personal and/or educational purposes. Cite and credit the Digital Betsy-Tacy Project when sharing, repurposing, or teaching this material.

The Digital Betsy-Tacy Project is directed by Mary Chayko, Ph.D., its principal researcher, writer, and editor. Dr. Chayko is a sociologist, author, and professor at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information. She has been studying life in a digital society for over 30 years. She speaks nationally and internationally and publishes widely on the impact of digital technology on everyday life, relationships, community, and the self. Her books include Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techo-Social Life (Sage Publications, 3 editions: 2021, 2018, 2016, plus translations in Korean, Turkish, and Serbian), Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online Connectedness (SUNY Press, 2008), and Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age (SUNY Press, 2002).

She can be reached at mary dot chayko at rutgers dot edu.