Program
From the “CS for All” initiative to ALA’s Ready to Code program, there is tremendous emphasis in recent years on ensuring that young people develop the skills they need to succeed in the global digital economy. As trusted community hubs for inquiry-based lifelong learning, libraries are uniquely positioned to provide patrons with the opportunities to develop these skills, but may be unsure where or how to start. In this session, IMLS grantees will share resources and lessons learned from their projects, and suggest replicable and affordable solutions for librarians looking to initiate or enhance similar programs in their communities.
This panel will feature the following active IMLS grants:
YALSA, 2018, $497,635, RE-95-18-0048-18
Young Adult Library Services Association will partner with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies to train 11,000 library staff across all 50 states and the five U.S. territories to facilitate computer science and computational thinking through the lens of connected learning. Computational thinking is increasingly recognized as an essential skill to prepare teens for personal and professional success in the increasingly the digital and global economy. The project will use a cost effective train-the-trainer approach, initially offering training to state library agency staff, who will then provide professional development to youth-serving librarians across their service areas. This project builds on the American Library Association's Ready to Code Initiative, supported by Google, reinforcing libraries' roles as essential players in our computer science education ecosystem, and leverages connections made at a 2017 national forum hosted by YALSA to better understand the professional development needs of state library youth consultants related to teen services.
North Dakota State Library, 2018, $249,000, LG-95-18-0024-18
The North Dakota State Library and their partners will explore the feasibility of weekly, informal coding programs at 50 small and rural public libraries across the United States. The "Coding at Every Library Project" will reach over 10,000 youth ages 8-14 will enable libraries to better support youth in learning to code and generate resources and a practitioner community that will enable many more libraries to offer coding programs. The project will leverage Prenda's expertise and computer science education platform to directly support non-expert facilitators at a low cost. And support the establishment of an open online community of Practitioners. This project builds on an existing North Dakota initiative, CodeDak, by providing libraries with the resources, skills, and inspiration necessary to host Hour of Code events and support regular code clubs.
University of Colorado, Boulder, 2017, $385,327, LG-96-17-0176-17
The University of Colorado Boulder's Information Science Department, in collaboration with Boulder Public Library and Denver Public Library, will conduct a study to understand cultivation of computational literacy among parents and children. Up to 100 family members, including children ages 4-7, will create and learn together using design-based activities with computing during workshops facilitated by library staff. Researchers will use design-based research incorporating ethnographic approaches and the Connected Learning framework. The work will result in a model of family engagement with young children in computational literacy, resources for librarians, including a facilitator guide, project website, webinars and professional development at conferences, and evidence-based case studies of family participation and library facilitation. Children and parents will get first-hand experience with creative technologies; partner libraries will have increased capacity to engage children and families in computational literacy; and more libraries will be able to provide computational literacy opportunities for young children and families.
Arizona State University, 2016, $249,999, LG-80-16-0116-16
In partnership with the University of Michigan School of Information, the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State University will provide professional development to twelve public librarians across three systems using the CompuGirls program model. CompuGirls is a well-established, evidence based, and culturally responsive program for young women of color to help them develop computational thinking skills. Over the two-year grant period, 180 girls will participate in the program across the three library systems. Based on feedback from partner libraries, the team will modify the existing curriculum to develop a library-specific model that is purposefully low-resource (cost, expertise, time). Partner libraries include Ypsilanti Public Library (MI), Imperial County Public Library (CA), and Tempe Public Library (AZ).
ALA Unit/Subunit: YALSA
Meeting Type: Program
Cost: Included with full conference registration.
Open/Closed: Open
Kelcy Shepherd
Associate Deputy Director for Discretionary Programs
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mary Soucie
State Librarian
North Dakota State Library
Patricia Garcia
Assistant Professor, School of Information
University of Michigan
Ricarose Roque
Assistant Professor, Information Science
University of Colorado, Boulder