The primary goals for the Healthy Living Outreach for Seniors program were to help seniors develop the ability to use technology through tablets, as well as understand the importance of e-health literacy and patient-centered care.
With funding through ALA's Libraries Ready to Code, we collaborated with a community makerspace and the local Boys & Girls Club to offer coding programs at three locations.
In addition to the Boys & Girls Club and the community makerspace, we also held programs at the library. Participating students ranged from third grade through high school.
In 2016-17 and 2017-18, Montclair Community Library hosted a YA Digital Book Trailer Contest for students in grades 9 through 12. Students read a YA book, then created and produced a trailer to inspire others to read the book. The trailers could be live action, animation or stop-action, with voiceover, music, narration and special effects.
Builder’s Club: Tween Edition is a hands-on, collaborative STEAM program for children ages 9 to 14. During each session, a library facilitator introduces a new topic for tweens to explore and practice.
Teen Tech Tutors is a hands-on monthly program in which local teens help others (mostly older adults) with technology questions. Patrons bring their own devices to the library where teens are available to answer questions and give one-on-one tech advice, training and support. This is a drop-in program; registration is not required.
“STEM is intimidating. Some teens think it’s a subject geared for students that already make straight A’s or already know that they want to go to college,” says Analiza Perez-Gomez, librarian at the Laredo Public Library in Texas. “But libraries level the playing ground. There are no obstacles to STEM here. Teens can try out STEM concepts for the first time with no added pressure.”
Libraries provide educational programming, a welcoming space, and access to computers and internet connection. This last point has become increasingly important during the pandemic, especially for libraries serving rural areas. In order to safely continue serving their communities, they have faced both the obstacles of switching to virtual programming and ensuring people can access it, on what is often a tiny budget.
To become a successful student and mature adult, children need to develop critical thinking skills. In the ever-changing world of electronic communication and emerging technologies, how can library workers help children develop and activate skills necessary to access, evaluate and create media? What better way to promote media literacy skill development than through library programming?
The Librarygame project teaches fifth graders the concepts of storytelling, technology and project management through the creation of video games. The program is a collaboration between Sacramento Public Library and local Title I schools, many of which lack the funds to hold this type of program without a partner.
This year’s Teen Tech Week (TTW) theme is Libraries are for Creating, with events taking place March 4 to 10, 2018. Teen Tech Week was created by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and this year's theme is aimed at encouraging teens to take advantage of “digital tools offered through the library to become content creators, and to leverage library resources to share out their creations.”
Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) is a weekly STEM workshop series for teenage girls offered at five of our library system’s locations during the month of June. Participants get to meet influential women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, learn about STEM opportunities and get hands-on experience with STEM technologies.
Each two-hour session consists of a presentation from a female professional in a STEM field, followed by a one-hour activity that explores and builds STEM skills among the participants.
Art Lab is a recurring program focusing on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math), with a focus on art. It is held at 7 p.m. every Monday. The first and third Mondays of the month are planned lessons, and the second and fourth Mondays are open draw sessions for students to relax and meet other artists.
The information below focuses on the Art Lab lesson: Electric Painting, in which the students made an interactive sound device using paint.
eBooks are fun, convenient and ... intimidating. Since publishers have become more accepting of making their eBooks available to libraries, the number of delivery platforms available at each library system has exploded. Each distributor has their own apps and tricks for use, sometimes making them difficult for our patrons to navigate.
My library system offers four different eBook and eMagazine platforms. Last month, I took on the challenge of developing and teaching a class about downloading and enjoying eBooks from our Library.
Our library has created a PokĂ©mon marathon event, called a PokĂ©thon, based on the popular PokĂ©mon Go game.Â
There’s no getting around it, computers touch nearly every facet of our lives. Need a job? Apply online. Need a resume? Fire up the word processing software and write one. Need to get in touch with someone? Email them. Want to see the latest pictures of your grandkids? Log on to Facebook.
School's out, and all the kids are down at the library looking for fun and creative things to do. Now that they can hang out and spend time at the library, we need to think of interesting and interactive activities that will engage them.
