You should have already or will soon be receiving your Spring 2016 edition of YALS. The topic of the issue is Libraries and Learning. All the articles are excellent but the one that stood out to me was the featured interview with Shannon Peterson, the Youth Services Manager for the Kitsap (WA) Regional Library (KRL). The library received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for their program Make, Do, Share: Sustainable STEM Leadership in a Box.
One of the great things about this interview is that not only did we learn the context of this project (it began with a project called BiblioTEC, sponsored through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation) but also heard about how Shannon and her staff frame the work they are doing. Many times in public libraries, we are so focused on helping our community, we don’t think about the reasoning behind our behaviors. These behaviors and the programming we create can be influenced by the theory we read and the theory we believe grounds our work as librarians. Shannon’s interview was full of all the things she and KRL was thinking of as they created the Make, Do, Share programming.
Below, I’ve included hyperlinks for all of the articles, books, programs Shannon mentions in her interview. I hope that if you were as inspired as I was after reading this article, you’ll be tempted to check out these resources yourself!
Resources cited by Shannon in her interview:
- Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferrable Knowledge and Skills for the 21st Century. From the National Research Council. (free PDF download)
- UC Davis’ Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Digital Media and Learning Badges
- An article from Inside Higher Ed giving a broad overview of the program.
- Defining Outcomes for STEM Learning Afterschool. From the Afterschool Alliance
- Learning Science in Informal Environments. From the National Research Council. (free PDF download)
- Identifying and Supporting STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings. From the National Research Council. (free PDF download)
- Future of Library Services for and with Teen: A Call to Action. From YALSA.
- Mindset by Carol Dweck (Worldcat link.)
- Youth Methods series. From Weikart Center for Youth.
- Youth Program Quality Assessments. From Weikart Center for Youth.
Facts, Figures, & Items Related to STEM:
- The 2009 occupational projection from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. They also released a report in December 2015, looking at occupational employment from 2014-2024 as well as another 2015 projection for what jobs will look like in 2024.
- Also from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, an article from May 2015 on the potential shortage of people to work in STEM related jobs. This is a hot topic, so simply searching “STEM jobs unfilled” or “STEM shortage” will turn up a lot of cultural criticism like articles on the topic.
- A really great recent article on what exactly Minecraft is (its origin story) and how some educators and librarians are using it with kids today.
Feel free to use the comments below to share other resources or “up vote” resources listed above!
